This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me by Ilona Andrews

2 April | 480 pgs | Maggie the Undying #1 | Bookshop.org UK | Blackwell’s

Maggie wakes up cold and naked in a gutter, in a city she knows intimately from the pages of the famously unfinished dark fantasy series. But while she quickly discovers she cannot be killed, the same cannot be said for the living, breathing characters she’s coming to love. Soon, instead of trying to get home, she finds herself enmeshed in the schemes of duelling princes, dukes, and villains, all while trying to save them from cataclysmic war.

A Dance of Burning Blades by M H Ayinde

7 April | 608 pgs | Invoker Trilogy #2 | Bookshop.org UK | Blackwell’s

In the Nine Lands, only those of noble blood can summon the spirits of their ancestors to fight in battle. But when Temi, a commoner from the slums, accidentally invokes a powerful spirit, she sets in motion a chain of events that will change her world forever. For not everything that can be invoked is an ancestor. And some of the spirits that can be drawn from the ancestral realm are more dangerous than anyone can imagine.

The Girl With a Thousand Faces by Sunyi Dean

7 May | 320 pages | Bookshop.org UK | Blackwell’s

An exorcist washes up on the shores of Hong Kong with no memory during World War II. After the war, she rebuilds her life as a ghost-talker for the local triad but a powerful ghost claims to know her past.

The Between-Worlds B&B by Amy Mae Baxter

7 May | 288 pages | YA | Bookshop.org UK | Blackwell’s

It’s the summer before she graduates and Margo has no idea where her life is going. When she gets locked out, she checks into a lovely B&B with a handsome receptionist, cosy rooms and a grand library. But Margo soon suspects that it’s all too perfect, and that magic is in the air. Is this a B&B for magical beings? But Margo doesn’t have a magical bone in her body, so what is she doing there?

I Hear A New World by Alan Moore

21 May | 336 pages | Long London #2 | Bookshop.org UK | Blackwell’s

1949, London: Hapless second-hand bookseller Dennis coming across a novel that should be fictional, hailing from a world where  reality blurs with fiction and concepts like Crime, Poetry and Riot are incarnated as mystical beings that stalk the streets. He must return the book and close the gate.

The Unicorn Hunters by Katherine Arden

2 June | 400 pages | Bookshop.org UK | Blackwell’s

Anne of Brittany was a child when her land was invaded. Now she is required to marry the King of France and complete her realm’s subjugation. Defiantly, she betroths herself in secret to France’s greatest enemy. But in a world where courts may spy on each other by magic, there is only one way to solemnize this illicit union. Anne takes her court deep into a deep forest, telling the French that she had gone to hunt unicorns. It’s a lie – until a unicorn appears and a wounded stranger falls at her feet.

The Impossible Garden of Clara Thorne by Summer N. England

7 April | 416 pages | Bookshop.org UK | Blackwell’s

Clara Thorne is finally living “happily ever after” as the magically-gifted gardener for the town of Moss, until the Goddess chooses her to grow a garden for the cursed town of Dwindle and assigns the cheerful Hesper Altanfall to protect her. (Small issue: Clara’s magic doesn’t work outside Moss.)

Stay for a Spell by Amy Coombe

23 April | 384 pages | Standalone | Bookshop.org UK | Blackwell’s

A princess is thrilled to find herself cursed to remain in a run-down bookshop until she can find her heart’s desire. Her parents hope a prince’s kiss can break the curse (I think the ‘infuriatingly handsome pirate’ might be a better bet).

The Antiquarian’s Object of Desire by India Holton

23 April | 368 pages | Love Academic #3 | Bookshop.org UK | Blackwell’s
This can be read as a standalone, so the summary below is for this book.

Two history professors and best friends are forced to pretend to be enemies to protect their reputations, but when their faculty head sends them to a job at an old Manor House, magical mayhem and the truth they’ve been hiding in the hearts threaten to destroy them.

Thistlemarsh by Moorea Corrigan

23 April | 432 pages | Bookshop.org UK | Blackwell’s

World War I is over and with her cousin MIA and her bother suffering from shell shock, Mouse puts aside her dreams of becoming a Faerie anthropologist to take over her uncle’s crumbling manor and care for her family. The inheritance comes with a condition: she must rehabilitate the house within a month, something which seems impossible – until a mysterious Faerie appears with a proposition.

The Ballad of Falling Dragons by Sarah A Parker

19 May | 720 pages | Moonfall #2 | Bookshop.org UK | Blackwell’s

The long-awaited sequel to When the Moon Hatched.

An assassin for a rebellion group is taken by the Crown’s bounty hunter. A vengeful king of another kingdom finds her in prison.

Under the Oak Tree Vol. 3 by Suji Kim

23 June | 496 pages | Under the Oak Tree #3 | Bookshop.org UK | Blackwell’s

Translated from the hit Korean webnovel about the arranged marriage between the daughter of a powerful Duke and a low-born knight turned war hero.

The Radiant Dark by Alexandra Oliva

28 April | 416 pages | Bookshop.org UK | Blackwell’s

This literary science fiction novel traces five decades of communication between a regular family in a small town and intelligent beings eleven light-years away.

The Forgetting Navigations by Marlee Jane Ward

4 May | 92 pages | Bookshop.org UK (ebook)

Evey is trapped on board the spaceship of a man with cold eyes and an even colder heart. When the door opens, she runs for the lifepod, launching into space and hoping that someone can save her before life support runs out.

Check out my review here.

The Last Contract of Isako by Fonda Lee

5 May | 528 pages | Bookshop.org UK | Blackwell’s

When Isako’s long-time client unexpectedly retires, she plans to follow. But when a competitor offers her a final mission, it’s one she can’t refuse. Soon, she’s thrust deep into a world of corporate espionage, duty-bound duels, and shadowy secrets. What she uncovers will change humanity’s existence in the stars forever.

Platform Decay by Martha Wells

5 May | 256 pgs | Murderbot Diaries #8 | Bookshop.org UK | Blackwell’s

On a distant planet, a team of scientists are conducting surface tests, shadowed by their Company-supplied ‘droid—a self-aware SecUnit that has hacked its own governor module, and refers to itself (though never out loud) as “Murderbot.” Scornful of humans, all it really wants is to be left alone long enough to figure out who it is. But when a neighboring mission goes dark, it’s up to the scientists and their Murderbot to get to the truth.

If We Cannot Go At the Speed of Light by Kim Choyeop

7 May | 192 pages | Korea | Bookshop.org UK | Blackwell’s

Kim Choyeop became an instant literary sensation in Korea with her debut short story collection. Each of these bitesize speculative masterpieces represents a journey into the unknown, from alternative futures to distant alien planets, in the company of scientists, space explorers and ordinary citizens in extraordinary situations.

Radiant Star by Ann Leckie

12 May | 368 pages | Imperial Radch | Bookshop.org UK | Blackwell’s
This is a standalone novel in the world of the Ancillary Justice series.

The Temporal Location of the Radiant Star has always been a source of both conflict and hope for the people of Ooioiaa. However, the imperial Radch see it only as an inconvenience, an antiquated religious site soon to be absorbed into their own, superior culture. One last man will be allowed to join the mummified bodies in the temporal location to become a “living saint”.