Readers we are back with another book haul. I think these are super fun and it’s a great way to showcase some books you may not have heard of.

Plot: Evangeline Fox was raised in her beloved father’s curiosity shop, where she grew up on legends about immortals, like the tragic Prince of Hearts. She knows his powers are mythic, his kiss is worth dying for, and that bargains with him rarely end well. But when Evangeline learns that the love of her life is about to marry another, she becomes desperate enough to offer the Prince of Hearts whatever he wants in exchange for his help to stop the wedding. The prince only asks for three kisses. But after Evangeline’s first promised kiss, she learns that the Prince of Hearts wants far more from her than she’s pledged. And he has plans for Evangeline that will either end in the greatest happily ever after, or the most exquisite tragedy… 

I loved Caraval when it first came out. I am putting all my faith in this book and hoping it will make me feel the same way I felt when I read Garber’s debut novel.

Plot: Imogen should be nice to her little sister Marie. She should be nice to her mum’s boyfriend too. And she certainly shouldn’t follow a strange silver moth through a door in a tree. But then… who does what they’re told? Followed by Marie, Imogen finds herself falling into a magical kingdom where the two sisters are swept up in a thrilling race against time – helped by the spoiled prince of the kingdom, a dancing bear, a very grumpy hunter… and even the stars above them.

The second book in this series is currently out now and I was given a proof copy to prepare myself for the second book and also let people know about the series as a whole. I was drawn in by how beautiful this cover is! Chris Riddell never misses!

Plot: When single mother Liv is commissioned to paint a mural in a 100-year-old lighthouse on a remote Scottish island, it’s an opportunity to start over with her three daughters–Luna, Sapphire, and Clover. When two of her daughters go missing, she’s frantic. She learns that the cave beneath the lighthouse was once a prison for women accused of witchcraft. The locals warn her about wildlings, supernatural beings who mimic human children, created by witches for revenge. Liv is told wildlings are dangerous and must be killed. Twenty-two years later, Luna has been searching for her missing sisters and mother. When she receives a call about her youngest sister, Clover, she’s initially ecstatic. Clover is the sister she remembers–except she’s still seven years old, the age she was when she vanished. Luna is worried Clover is a wildling. Luna has few memories of her time on the island, but she’ll have to return to find the truth of what happened to her family. But she doesn’t realize just how much the truth will change her.

I was given this as an ARC by the publishers in exchange for an honest review. I cannot wait to read it!

Plot: Beyond the stars, two gods vie for rule of the world. One stands for Nature – the belief that everything is stamped in flesh from the start. The other, Nurture – the belief that all is potential, that the true self is coaxed out through love and living. And so, they take a bet. Each immortal selects a set of twins as their champions. The twins that prevail in contest will decide which immortal rules…. In a westerly valley, a girl and boy are born to a noble family, to be raised by a mysterious teacher – ready to love and instruct them in everything, regardless of society’s expectations… To the east, a woman washes ashore on an island inhabited only by a sorcerer. With her final breaths, she gives birth to twins. These two are raised with careful neglect by the sorcerer – surrounded not with love but with danger, magic and wildness. Society expects these children to become men and women. But the immortals care nothing for human norms and raise the twins according to their own ends. Which twins will prevail?

I was given this ARC by the publishers in exchange for an honest review. I was really interested in the whole idea of nature vs nurture that is explored within this novel.

Plot: The colony ship Ragtime docks in the Lagos system, having traveled light-years to bring one thousand sleeping souls to a new home among the stars. But when first mate Michelle Campion rouses, she discovers some of the sleepers will never wake. Answering Campion’s distress call, investigator Rasheed Fin is tasked with finding out who is responsible for these deaths. Soon a sinister mystery unfolds aboard the gigantic vessel, one that will have repercussions for the entire system—from the scheming politicians of Lagos station, to the colony planet Bloodroot, to other far-flung systems, and indeed to Earth itself.

This was another book I just had to get my hands on and the minute I saw it promoted on the publishers twitter account I knew I needed to buy it. It is getting to the stage now where I am forgetting all the things I am pre-ordering and they just keep arriving but it’s all fun and games.

What the book is about: It began in 1692, over an exceptionally raw Massachusetts winter, when a minister’s niece started to scream and convulse. It ended less than a year later, but not before panic had infected the entire colony, nineteen men and women had been hanged, and a band of adolescent girls had brought Massachusetts to its knees. Vividly capturing the dark, unsettled atmosphere of seventeenth-century America, Stacy Schiff’s magisterial history draws us into this anxious time. She shows us how quickly the epidemic of accusations, trials, and executions span out of control. Above all, Schiff’s astonishing research reveals details and complexity that few other historians have seen.

In the honour of Halloween I wanted to learn more about what actually happened during Salem and the Witch Trials and then I saw this book and realised it was literally exactly what I wanted!