A lifelong reader of all things YA and books with heartfelt moments that punch you with all the feels. Currently expanding my reading interests to encompass anything that makes me feel deep and resonate with the characters
Good morning everyone! It does not look nice outside, but when does it ever on a cold early January day? This is the perk of being born in the winter.
I have chosen to do this birthday book tag again that was one of the first posts I did last year after an almost 2 year hiatus from the blog. It was a lot of fun and I thought I would give different answers now that I’m a year older with answers reflecting my last year.
I also wanted to take this time to thank all of you new friends who joined us on this journey in the last year. I have loved interacting with your blogs, the books you read and just sharing things with all of you.
Birthday Cake – a book with a plot that seems cliche but you adore it anyway
If I’m Being Honest was such an unexpected contender for top books of last year because it seemed like such a cliche. Mean girl can’t get the guy she likes so she tries to make him think she’s not so bad by helping the nerdy guy she made fun of previously. And then falls for him unwittingly! When I put it like that, yeah, it doesn’t sound like much, but I loved the way the authors went about this, especially because Cam wasn’t necessarily likable at first but I got to understand her. Plus, the nerdy “loser” isn’t just your typical stereotype, and their relationship felt so organic to me.
Happy birthday song – a book that certainly deserves all the hype it got
The Love Hypothesis has topped so many people’s lists last year, popping up literally everywhere in the book community. Being a scientist myself, I had wanted to check this book out solely for the fact that the protagonist is a Ph.D. student with an author who is in scientific academia. The hype actually made me wary it wouldn’t meet my expectations. But lo and behold, this was everything I wanted for the science references AND the romance was too adorable! It makes so much sense that so many adored it, and I feel it’s 100% well deserved.
Happy music – a book with some very beautiful and truly meaningful quotes
I talked briefly throughout a number of posts that I was dealing with some betrayal from people I’ve known for many years. We didn’t get to meet in person (thankfully because I would’ve been an absolute mess) in the aftermath of everything so I always felt like I didn’t have closure, but I didn’t want to hold onto the anger and hurt when they lived their lives like hurting me was no big deal. Forgiving What You Can’t Forget came right at the time I needed it in the aftermath of this storm (God’s timing!), and it has wonderfully quotable lines (and tips) that stuck with me – even when the rhyming got a little annoying.
Getting older – a book that you read a long time ago but you think you would appreciate more if you read it as a more mature reader
I actually did in fact re-read this book last year when I took on tutoring a friend taking senior year English class. Let’s be honest, I wasn’t particularly enthused to have to pick up The Great Gatsby again. I didn’t much like it the first time around when I had to read it for class. But when I did look at it again now as a mid-twenty something year old, I understood more of what the book was trying to say? Maybe it helped that I’ve read so much more since then, and I’ve experienced more in my life that made me empathize with the depictions in this classic. Nonetheless, I can fully say I enjoyed it more as a more mature reader.
Party guests – your most anticipated book release for this year
Book of Night, hands down. In lieu of the fact that I have yet to see ANY new news about the sequel to Ninth House, I will have to settle with this release that is apparently in the same vein as Ninth House. I haven’t forayed too far into dark academia books but the synopsis has me super excited for this one to hopefully fill the void in my heart.
Sweet birthday memories – a book that kept you incredibly happy during a sad or demanding period of your life
I was dealing with some anxiety earlier in April that even led to wearing a 48-hour heart monitor. Needless to say, it was a darker time in the year. But it was around this time I got to reading this gem of a book, Counting Down with You, that helped me forget a little about my anxieties even for just a tiny while. I loved the cultural insight, the romance, and everything in between – you can read the full review here.
Birthday presents – a book that surprised you with how much you loved it
One of my earliest reads of 2021, Vicious Spirits caught me by surprise because I didn’t really like its companion novel so much? With this book, I already met most of the characters and I actually much preferred the two leads in this one over the leads for the other book. I am always an advocate for more Asian stories, especially written from an Asian author with some of their experiences imbued into it, but this one just blew me away. I think the romance made more sense in this book and there was more closure for the major plot arcs.
Well, friends, that wraps up my birthday post for 2022. I hope you enjoyed. Once again, thank you from the bottom of my heart (and Fives’) for being a part of our book community in sharing who we are and what we love.
Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.
We recently posted our Highly Anticipated Releases for January 2022, so I will ensure to expand this list to include more of the novels coming out in February to June. I also know there are probably more titles in the later months that I missed so as of today, this is what I am highly anticipating. Knowing me, there will be more added to this list in another month or so.
Let’s begin, shall we?
1. Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan
Coming out: January 11, 2022
A captivating debut fantasy inspired by the legend of Chang’e, the Chinese moon goddess, in which a young woman’s quest to free her mother pits her against the most powerful immortal in the realm.
Growing up on the moon, Xingyin is accustomed to solitude, unaware that she is being hidden from the feared Celestial Emperor who exiled her mother for stealing his elixir of immortality. But when Xingyin’s magic flares and her existence is discovered, she is forced to flee her home, leaving her mother behind.
Alone, powerless, and afraid, she makes her way to the Celestial Kingdom, a land of wonder and secrets. Disguising her identity, she seizes an opportunity to learn alongside the emperor’s son, mastering archery and magic, even as passion flames between her and the prince.
To save her mother, Xingyin embarks on a perilous quest, confronting legendary creatures and vicious enemies across the earth and skies. But when treachery looms and forbidden magic threatens the kingdom, she must challenge the ruthless Celestial Emperor for her dream—striking a dangerous bargain in which she is torn between losing all she loves or plunging the realm into chaos.
Daughter of the Moon Goddess begins an enchanting, romantic duology which weaves ancient Chinese mythology into a sweeping adventure of immortals and magic—where love vies with honor, dreams are fraught with betrayal, and hope emerges triumphant.
2. The Iron Sword by Julie Kagawa
Coming out: February 1, 2022
As Evenfall nears, the stakes grow ever higher for those in Faery…
Banished from the Winter Court for daring to fall in love, Prince Ash achieved the impossible and journeyed to the End of the World to earn a soul and keep his vow to always stand beside Queen Meghan of the Iron Fey.
Now he faces even more incomprehensible odds. Their son, King Keirran of the Forgotten, is missing. Something more ancient than the courts of Faery and more evil than anything Ash has faced in a millennium is rising as Evenfall approaches. And if Ash and his allies cannot stop it, the chaos that has begun to divide the world will shatter it for eternity.
3. These Deadly Games by Diana Urban
Coming out: February 1, 2022
Let’s play a game.
You have 24 hours to win. If you break my rules, she dies. If you call the police, she dies. If you tell your parents or anyone else, she dies.
Are you ready?
When Crystal Donavan gets a message on a mysterious app with a video of her little sister gagged and bound, she agrees to play the kidnapper’s game. At first, they make her complete bizarre tasks: steal a test and stuff it in a locker, bake brownies, make a prank call.
But then Crystal realizes each task is meant to hurt—and kill—her friends, one by one. But if she refuses to play, the kidnapper will kill her sister. Is someone trying to take her team out of the running for a gaming tournament? Or have they uncovered a secret from their past, and wants them to pay for what they did…
As Crystal makes the impossible choices between her friends and her sister, she must uncover the truth and find a way to outplay the kidnapper… before it’s too late.
Author of All Your Twisted Secrets, Diana Urban’s explosive sophomore novel, These Deadly Games, will keep you riveted until the final twist is revealed.
4. League of Liars by Astrid Scholte
Coming out: February 22, 2022
In this fantasy thriller, four teens charged with murder and the illegal use of magic band together to devise the ultimate jailbreak. Perfect for fans of Six of Crows and How to Get Away with Murder.
Ever since his mother was killed, seventeen-year-old Cayder Broduck has had one goal–to see illegal users of magic brought to justice. People who carelessly use extradimensional magic for their own self-interest, without a care to the damage it does to society or those around them, deserve to be punished as far as Cayder is concerned. Because magic always has a price. So when Cayder lands a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to apprentice under a premier public defender, he takes it. If he can learn all the tricks of public defense, the better he’ll be able to dismantle defense arguments when he’s a prosecutor. Then he’ll finally be able to make sure justice is served.
But when he meets the three criminals he’s supposed to defend, it no longer seems so black and white. They’re teenagers, like him, and their stories are . . . complicated, like his. Vardean, the prison where Cayder’s new clients are incarcerated, also happens to be at the very heart of the horrible tear in the veil between their world and another dimension–where all magic comes from.
League of Liars is a dark and twisty mystery set in a richly-drawn world where nothing is as it seems, rife with magic, villains and danger.
5. Gallant by V.E. Schwab
Coming out: March 1, 2022
Everything casts a shadow. Even the world we live in. And as with every shadow, there is a place where it must touch. A seam, where the shadow meets its source.
#1 New York Times–bestselling author Victoria Schwab weaves a dark and original tale about the place where the world meets its shadow, and the young woman beckoned by both sides. The Secret Garden meets Crimson Peak in this stand-alone novel perfect for readers of Holly Black and Neil Gaiman.
Olivia Prior has grown up in Merilance School for girls, and all she has of her past is her mother’s journal—which seems to unravel into madness. Then, a letter invites Olivia to come home—to Gallant. Yet when Olivia arrives, no one is expecting her. But Olivia is not about to leave the first place that feels like home, it doesn’t matter if her cousin Matthew is hostile or if she sees half-formed ghouls haunting the hallways.
Olivia knows that Gallant is hiding secrets, and she is determined to uncover them. When she crosses a ruined wall at just the right moment, Olivia finds herself in a place that is Gallant—but not. The manor is crumbling, the ghouls are solid, and a mysterious figure rules over all. Now Olivia sees what has unraveled generations of her family, and where her father may have come from.
Olivia has always wanted to belong somewhere, but will she take her place as a Prior, protecting our world against the Master of the House? Or will she take her place beside him?
New York Times bestselling author Victoria Schwab crafts a vivid and lush novel that grapples with the demons that are often locked behind closed doors. An eerie, standalone saga about life, death, and the young woman beckoned by both. Readers of Neil Gaiman, Holly Black, Melissa Albert, and Garth Nix will quickly lose themselves in this novel with crossover appeal for all ages.
6. Portrait of a Thief by Grace D. Li
Coming out: April 5, 2022
Ocean’s Eleven meets The Farewell in Portrait of a Thief, a lush, lyrical heist novel inspired by the true story of Chinese art vanishing from Western museums, about diaspora, the colonization of art, and the complexity of the Chinese American identity.
History is told by the conquerors. Across the Western world, museums display the spoils of war, of conquest, of colonialism: priceless pieces of art looted from other countries, kept even now.
Will Chen plans to steal them back.
A senior at Harvard, Will fits comfortably in his carefully curated roles: a perfect student, an art history major and sometimes artist, the eldest son that has always been his parents’ American Dream. But when a shadowy Chinese corporation reaches out with an impossible—and illegal—job offer, Will finds himself something else as well: the leader of a heist to steal back five priceless Chinese sculptures, looted from Beijing centuries ago.
His crew is every heist archetype one can imagine—or at least, the closest he can get. A conman: Irene Chen, Will’s sister and a public policy major at Duke, who can talk her way out of anything. A thief: Daniel Liang, a premed student with steady hands just as capable of lockpicking as suturing. A getaway driver: Lily Wu, an engineering student who races cars in her free time. A hacker: Alex Huang, an MIT dropout turned Silicon Valley software engineer. Each member of his crew has their own complicated relationship with China and the identity they’ve cultivated as Chinese Americans, but when Will asks, none of them can turn him down.
Because if they succeed? They earn fifty million dollars—and a chance to make history. But if they fail, it will mean not just the loss of everything they’ve dreamed for themselves but yet another thwarted attempt to take back what colonialism has stolen.
With poetic language, a fun, commercial hook, and a plot that spans the Western world, Portrait of a Thief is both a cultural heist and an examination of the Chinese American identity, as well as a necessary critique of the lingering effects of colonialism that readers won’t want to miss.
7. Hotel Magnifique by Emily J. Taylor
Coming out: April 5, 2022
For fans of Caraval and The Night Circus, this decadent and darkly enchanting YA fantasy, set against the backdrop of a Belle Époque-inspired hotel, follows seventeen-year-old Jani as she uncovers the deeply disturbing secrets of the legendary Hotel Magnifique.
All her life, Jani has dreamed of Elsewhere. Just barely scraping by with her job at a tannery, she’s resigned to a dreary life in the port town of Durc, caring for her younger sister Zosa. That is, until the Hotel Magnifique comes to town.
The hotel is legendary not only for its whimsical enchantments, but also for its ability to travel—appearing in a different destination every morning. While Jani and Zosa can’t afford the exorbitant costs of a guest’s stay, they can interview to join the staff, and are soon whisked away on the greatest adventure of their lives. But once inside, Jani quickly discovers their contracts are unbreakable and that beneath the marvelous glamour, the hotel is hiding dangerous secrets.
With the vexingly handsome doorman Bel as her only ally, Jani embarks on a mission to unravel the mystery of the magic at the heart of the hotel and free Zosa—and the other staff—from the cruelty of the ruthless maître d’hôtel. To succeed, she’ll have to risk everything she loves, but failure would mean a fate far worse than never returning home.
8. Book of Night by Holly Black
Coming out: May 3, 2022
#1 New York Times bestselling author Holly Black makes her stunning adult debut with Book of Night, a modern dark fantasy of shadowy thieves and secret societies in the vein of Ninth House and The Night Circus
In Charlie Hall’s world, shadows can be altered, for entertainment and cosmetic preferences—but also to increase power and influence. You can alter someone’s feelings—and memories—but manipulating shadows has a cost, with the potential to take hours or days from your life. Your shadow holds all the parts of you that you want to keep hidden—a second self, standing just to your left, walking behind you into lit rooms. And sometimes, it has a life of its own.
Charlie is a low-level con artist, working as a bartender while trying to distance herself from the powerful and dangerous underground world of shadow trading. She gets by doing odd jobs for her patrons and the naive new money in her town at the edge of the Berkshires. But when a terrible figure from her past returns, Charlie’s present life is thrown into chaos, and her future seems at best, unclear—and at worst, non-existent. Determined to survive, Charlie throws herself into a maelstrom of secrets and murder, setting her against a cast of doppelgangers, mercurial billionaires, shadow thieves, and her own sister—all desperate to control the magic of the shadows.
With sharp angles and prose, and a sinister bent, Holly Black is a master of shadow and story stitching. Remember while you read, light isn’t playing tricks in Book of Night, the people are.
9. This Place is Still Beautiful by XiXi Tian
Coming out: June 7, 2022
Two sisters. A shocking racist incident. The summer that will change both of their lives forever.
Despite having had near-identical upbringings, sisters Annalie and Margaret agree on only one thing: that they have nothing in common. Nineteen-year-old Margaret is driven, ambitious, and keenly aware of social justice issues. She couldn’t wait to leave their oppressive small-town home and take flight in New York. Meanwhile sweet, popular, seventeen-year-old Annalie couldn’t think of anything worse – she loves their town, and feels safe coasting along in its confines.
That is, until she arrives home one day to find a gut-punching racial slur painted on their garage door.
Outraged, Margaret flies home, expecting to find her family up in arms. Instead, she’s amazed to hear they want to forget about it. Their mom is worried about what it might stir up, and Annalie just wants to have a ‘normal’ summer – which Margaret is determined to ruin, apparently.
Back under each other’s skins, things between Margaret and Annalie get steadily worse – and not even the distraction of first love (for Annalie), or lost love (for Margaret) can bring them together.
Until finally, a crushing secret threatens to tear them apart forever.
A beautiful and powerful story about race, family, and the secrets we keep.
10. The Song That Moves the Sun by Anna Bright
Coming out: June 28, 2022
Rora is tired of being afraid. Exhausted by a mind that sees everything through a prism of fear. Claudia would do anything to ease her best friend’s anxiety, but lately her own life has been spiraling out of control.
It should be the two of them against the world—but the rest of the world has been descending into chaos too. Every day brings increasingly alarming news: waves of accidents, surging crime statistics, natural phenomena scientists can’t explain. It seems like something has gone seriously wrong with the universe.
Then they meet two boys at a concert and discover that something has. Major and Amir come from one of nine secret cities of the spheres, ruled by the magic of the astrological signs. They say there’s a disruption in the magical symphony that maintains the balance between the worlds. And they need help.
To find the source of the disharmony, Rora and Claudia will embark on a whirlwind journey of secrets, romance, and powerful truths—about themselves, each other, and two long-ago explorers named Dante and Beatrice, who were among the first to chart this course toward the stars.
Are any of these titles on your highly anticipated reads for the year? Which one are you most excited for? And if you have an ARC for any of these, let me know so I can live vicariously through you until their release!
A gothic tale full of mystery and romance about a willful female surgeon, a resurrection man who sells bodies for a living, and the buried secrets they must uncover together.
Edinburgh, 1817.
Hazel Sinnett is a lady who wants to be a surgeon more than she wants to marry.
Jack Currer is a resurrection man who’s just trying to survive in a city where it’s too easy to die.
When the two of them have a chance encounter outside the Edinburgh Anatomist’s Society, Hazel thinks nothing of it at first. But after she gets kicked out of renowned surgeon Dr. Beecham’s lectures for being the wrong gender, she realizes that her new acquaintance might be more helpful than she first thought. Because Hazel has made a deal with Dr. Beecham: if she can pass the medical examination on her own, the university will allow her to enroll. Without official lessons, though, Hazel will need more than just her books – she’ll need bodies to study, corpses to dissect.
Lucky that she’s made the acquaintance of someone who digs them up for a living, then.
But Jack has his own problems: strange men have been seen skulking around cemeteries, his friends are disappearing off the streets. Hazel and Jack work together to uncover the secrets buried not just in unmarked graves, but in the very heart of Edinburgh society.
**Anatomy: A Love Story comes out January 18, 2022**
Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin’s Pressfor this copy in exchange for an honest review
I will be upfront and acknowledge that this book may not be for absolutely everyone, and I will break down why it worked for me.
In the vein of Lydia Kang’s historical novels on medicine (see Quackery), Anatomy: A Love Story is very much, well, on anatomy and surgeries. But unlike what we may think of as modern day surgeries, the early 1800s was a scary place if you needed to be operated on. Think dirty conditions, hospitals packed for the poor while the rich had doctors come to their own homes, and operations conducted with no anesthesia.
In such a time like this, we meet our protagonist Hazel. I absolutely adored her! She had a lifelong passion to be a surgeon, which was an inconceivable notion for a woman, let alone a lady of her status. Surgeons were also considered a lesser profession than physicians because they cut into bodies, something a *gasp* woman could never do with her sensitivities (insert heavy sarcasm). Nonetheless, she fought every obstacle in her way and this is what was the heart of this story. If this excites you, then congratulations, this book will make your heart leap for joy at her successes and rave at everyone when those obstacles grew so large.
This is a story about defying the boundaries and expectations placed on you in order to achieve what you’re meant to do. It reminded me a lot on the fight for woman’s rights (such as found in A Mad, Wicked Folly) and I wanted to fight with Hazel so much as a woman in science myself.
Now, there are two other elements in this story that were just as lovely but were not as represented as one may have initially expected from the synopsis.
Meeting Jack and partnering with him comes a little later in the book, probably closer to the halfway point. We do get POVs from Jack prior to this decision, and Jack and Hazel do also meet at some point before as well, but this doesn’t develop for a while. There was a lot of foundational set up of the time and Hazel’s desperation to become a licensed surgeon.
But once we do have this potential relationship going, it was just all hearts from there! Jack is such a gem, and it helped that we got to know him outside of his interactions with Hazel at first. He’s had a rough life on the poorer outskirts of society, but he’s worked hard to care for himself. Although he and Hazel could not be more different in many ways, their love story filled my heart and I just yearned for the very best for them. I will admit that I wanted MORE of this precious relationship on the pages, but I can understand why it wasn’t necessarily the focus.
There is also the mysterious element regarding disappearing people. This was a little predictable to me – perhaps I read too many thrillers and mysteries – but it connected with the overall story well and didn’t feel like a throwaway.
It is by far the least of these 3 focal points of the book so please don’t come in thinking it plays in a super major way. It’s present and definitely comes to the forefront at some point, but this isn’t a mystery book. I will say I enjoyed its connection to the story but it’s not suspenseful or particularly thrilling to my standards.
So if you have a love of science (even in a minuscule way) and stories about overcoming all the obstacles to achieve your goals, this is the book for you. The romance was beautiful and the story flowed together, albeit less focused on these areas.
I got to the end and my heart needed a moment to stop and take a deep breath. I was so immersed in the story and just wished I had more. I thought the ending was beautifully written with the right amount of open-endedness for interpretation.
Overall Recommendation:
Anatomy: A Love Story delivered well on its central theme of overcoming obstacles to do what you love. Hazel was the perfect protagonist in this situation, a young lady who wanted to be a surgeon in a purely male-dominated field. It really immersed us into early 1800 Edinburgh as she fought so many obstacles in her way to pursue her dream and passion. The romance with Jack, a resurrection man aka a grave digger, happened later in the book but their partnership was just the cutest and most wholesome thing ever! There was also a mystery in play but these elements were not the focal points, although they were all connected well with the main part of the story. This may not be for everyone, especially if you thought it was purely a great romance novel, but I personally loved the historical science of it. Dana Schwartz is definitely being added to my list of writers to look out for.
Down the Rabbit Hole 