The New Disney Princess Book Tag!

I saw Deanna @ Deanna Reads Books do this tag and, being the Disney nerd that I am, I couldn't resist doing it myself.

THE RULES

• Mention where you saw the tag/thank whoever tagged you!
• Tag Zuky and Mandy's posts (the awesome creators of the tag) so they can check out the wonderful Princess fun throughout the blog world (Mandy @ Book Princess Reviews & Zuky @ Book Bum)
• Play a game of tag at the end!

SNOW WHITE

This book (like the movie) started it all

Favorite Debut Book from an Author

I know you're all so shocked, but of course it's Silvia Moreno-Garcia's Signal to Noise. This debut took me completely by surprise in 2015 and it's one of my favourite novels of all time.

CINDERELLA

A Diamond In The Rough

Just Like Cinderella, You Either Didn’t Expect Much Out of This Character in the Beginning But They Turned Out to Be a Total Gem

Neville Longbottom. What a precious bean. I don't think anyone really expected much from Neville, not even his own grandmother, and then he grew into one of the best characters in the Harry Potter series. I love Neville.

AURORA

Sleeping Beauty

A Book That Makes You Sleepy, or Just Could Not Hold Your Attention

I'm sorry to say it's Erin Morgenstern's The Night Circus, knowing how beloved it is. I did like it but it took me so long to get through; the circus itself fascinated me, but I actually found Celia, Marco and their relationship really boring. I might try rereading it at some point, though, because my tastes have changed a lot since I last read it.

ARIEL

Under the Sea

A Book With a Water/ Ocean Setting

I'm really looking forward to reading Julia Ember's The Seafarer's Kiss, a lesbian retelling of The Little Mermaid with vikings. All the yes. I'm saving my copy for the winter months because I'm going to Iceland in the first weekend of December, so I think Reykjavik will be the perfect setting to read about vikings.

BELLE

Beauty and the Books

Name A Book With The Best Bookworm/ Booklover

Hermione Granger is the obvious answer, and I do adore her, but instead I'm going to go with Catherine from Austen's Northanger Abbey, who loves Gothic fiction so much she wrongly accuses her future father-in-law of murder. Oops.

JASMINE

The Thief and the Princess

Name A Book With An Unlikely Love Story (Either in Terms of Romance, or a Book You Didn’t Expect To Love So Much)

I think I'm going to go with Agnieszka and The Dragon from Naomi Novik's Uprooted. Heteronormativity is real, so whenever a book is released with one female and one male protagonist we can be certain they're probably going to fall in love at some point, but when I started reading Uprooted I began to think there wasn't going to be a romantic relationship, after all. What surprised me most, though, was that when their relationship did become romantic, I actually really liked their chemistry. So kudos to you, Naomi Novik, you did a good job!

POCAHONTAS

The Real Life Princess

Name A Book That is Based On a Real Life Person You Want to Read or Have Read

It's been on my TBR for a while now and I still haven't read it simply because, when it comes to historical fiction, I don't tend to read many books set in the medieval period, but I really want to give Sharon Penman's Here Be Dragons a try. Penman is such a huge name in the realms of historical fiction, so I need to read some of her anyway, and Here Be Dragons follows Joan, Lady of Wales, also known by her Welsh name Siwan, who was an illegitimate daughter of King John and was married off to the Welsh Prince Llywelyn ap Iorwerth. I've always been fascinated by her, it's a shame we know so little about her.

MULAN

The Princess That Saved Her Country

Name the Fiercest Heroine You Know

That has to be Saba from Moira Young's Blood Red Road. I adore her, she's a real survivor and I wouldn't want to cross her.

TIANA

The Princess With the Coolest and Most Diverse Crew

Name A Diverse Book, Whether it is a Diverse Set of Characters (Like Tiana’s Group of Naveen, Louis, Ray, and More)or Just Diverse In General

That has to be Becky Chambers' The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, whose entire cast of characters are different species and genders and sexes and sexualities and nationalities and races whom Chambers uses to explore what makes us different and, more importantly, what makes us similar. It's often compared to Firefly and I can understand why, but honestly I think I'd much rather watch a TV adaptation of this.

RAPUNZEL 

Let Your Longggggg Hair Down

Name the Longest Book You Have Ever Read

I had a look on Goodreads and was surprised to realise that the longest book I've read so far is Winter by Marissa Meyer. I don't know why I was surprised because I never read books that are 800 pages long or more (my edition of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is only 766 pages long) although I'd like to read more long books in future, because I certainly own plenty to get through.

MERIDA

I Determine My Own Fate

A Book Where There is No Love Story/ Interest or Isn’t Needed

I'm going to go with Katherine Addison's The Goblin Emperor, which is one of my favourite books ever. Our protagonist, Maia, becomes betrothed in this book and we do get a hint that he and his fiancee will be happy together and might even love each other one day, but there's no life-altering romance getting in the way of what is already a wonderful story.

ELSA & ANNA

Frozen Hearts

A Book in a Winter/ Cold Setting

No book has ever made me feel as cold as Hannah Kent's fantastic descriptions of the Icelandic landscape in Burial Rites.

MOANA

How Far I’ll Go

A Character That Goes On a Journey

I have to go with Nan King. Tipping the Velvet isn't my favourite of Sarah Waters' novels, but it's a true coming of age novel and such a fun, saucy romp through Victorian London. While reading it I got the feeling that Waters had a lot of fun writing it - there isn't much that poor Nan doesn't go through, and by the end of the novel she's a completely different person to who she was at the beginning.

If you'd like to do this tag, consider yourself tagged!

Top Ten Tuesday | Extra! Extra! Read all about it!

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature created at The Broke and the Bookish. Each week you compile a list of ten books which coincide with that week's theme. You can find everything you need to know about joining in here!

This week's theme is 'Top Ten Books I Wish Had (More/Less) X In Them', so this week I'm talking about the books I wish had more pages in them!

Woman Who Brings the Rain by Eluned Gramich: This teeny little memoir was my first read of this year, and was also shortlisted for the English-language Wales Book of the Year in the non-fiction category. I've been really into learning more about Asia in this year and I loved the way this little memoir, about the author's time in Japan, was written, so I'd've really liked a much longer book. Perhaps she'll produce one in future!

Unicorn Tracks by Julia Ember: This has LGBT+ protagonists and unicorns, so what's not to love? I really enjoyed Ember's debut, I just wanted even more of it.

Binti by Nnedi Okorafor: Similarly, the only thing I wanted from Binti was even more of it because the universe Okorafor has created is fascinating.

The Wonder by Emma Donoghue: Something's revealed at the end of The Wonder that I felt was brushed under the carpet very quickly considering the seriousness of it. I would have liked a few more pages so that what's revealed could have been dealt with more than it was.

The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison: Okay so this book, one of my favourites of all time (possibly my ultimate favourite of all time), is perfect as far as I'm concerned, I just didn't want it to end. More please?

St Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves by Karen Russell: Pretty much every single story in this collection ended in medias res and I found it really frustrating. I think I might have liked the book a little more than I did if I felt as though every story actually had an ending.

Little Red Riding Hood Uncloaked: Sex, Morality and the Evolution of a Fairy Tale by Catherine Orenstein: I really enjoyed this, and I recommend it if you're interested in the history of fairy tales, but I'd love an updated version talking about some of the more recent versions and adaptations of Little Red Riding Hood.

The Girl from Everywhere by Heidi Heilig: I loved Heilig's debut, the idea is just delicious, and the only problem I had with it was that ending felt a little rushed compared with the pace of the rest of the book. I'd've been happy for a slower ending, but it didn't really take anything away from my enjoyment of the book.

Rolling in the Deep by Mira Grant: I don't think this novella really needs to be longer, it's an ideal size for what it is, but I loved the concept so much that I'd've happily read a full-length novel - especially as I don't read enough horror.

The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen: This is one of those classic Gothic Victorian stories, told in hindsight in a 'tell-don't-show' way that so many 19th century stories were, but the idea is so interesting that I wish it was longer and a bit more, well, more.

What did you talk about this week?

Top Ten Tuesday | Anticipated Releases of 2017

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature created at The Broke and the Bookish. Each week you compile a list of ten books which coincide with that week's theme. You can find everything you need to know about joining in here!

This week's theme is 'Top Ten Books I'm Looking Forward To For The First Half Of 2017'. I usually don't like doing these because, despite working in publishing, I'm not that great at keeping up with what's coming out in the coming years that I'm going to love. If there's a favourite author I follow or a series I'm keeping up with, I'll know, but otherwise I'm fairly useless.

Nevertheless there are some books I'm really looking forward to in the first half of 2017, so, without further ado, here are my top ten twelve most anticipated books being published between January and June!

The Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli: Despite not being much of a YA reader these days, I adored Becky Albertalli's debut Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda (reviewed here!) so I'd like to check out her second novel not only because I loved her debut so much, but also because The Upside of Unrequited features an overweight protagonist. We need more such protagonists in YA!

The Other Half of Happiness by Ayisha Malik: The sequel to Sofia Khan is Not Obliged (reviewed here!), which is probably one of the best adult contemporary novels I've read in a long while.

Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows by Balli Kaur Jaswal: If that title doesn't catch your eye, I don't know what will. I just love the sound of this novel.

Stay With Me by Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀: I read about Adébáyọ̀'s debut in The Bookseller and loved the sound of it. Anyone who's had Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Margaret Atwood for mentors has to be fantastic so I can't wait to get my hands on this one.

Red Sister by Mark Lawrence: I don't read much high fantasy - I wish I read more than I do - but this sounds so cool. Assassin nuns are the best kind of characters.

The Seafarer's Kiss by Julia Ember: A Norse, LGBT+ retelling of The Little Mermaid. I am ready. I read and enjoyed Ember's debut Unicorn Tracks (reviewed here!) this year, and I can't wait to read more of her work!

The Ship Beyond Time by Heidi Heilig: I was surprised by how much I enjoyed The Girl From Everywhere (reviewed here!), so I'll definitely be checking out the sequel! I'm fairly certain this series is a duology so I'm curious to see how Heilig intends to wrap up Nix's story.

Dragon Springs Road by Janie Chang: This sounds magical. I've been meaning to read Chang's debut novel, Three Souls, but haven't got around to it yet. Dragon Springs Road sounds like my cup of tea, though; it's historical fiction meets magical realism meets mystery, all with a mixed race protagonist. I always enjoy reading books featuring mixed race protagonists and I'm really looking forward to this one.

Take Courage: Anne Brontë and the Art of Life by Samantha Ellis: I loved Samantha Ellis's memoir, How To Be a Heroine (reviewed here!), and I love Anne Brontë, so Samantha Ellis writing a book about Anne Brontë sounds perfect to me.

The Witchfinder's Sister by Beth Underdown: As far as I'm concerned Matthew Hopkins is one of the most evil men in history. He turned witch-hunting into a career for himself, inciting fear in small towns and making money killing women he accused of witchcraft - we even have him to thank for the Salem Witch Trials after a book he wrote became very popular overseas. This novel is from the point of view of Matthew's sister during the tumultuous years of the witch trials, and I think it'll be so interesting to read a book about Hopkins from the point of view of a female relative.

The Good People by Hannah Kent: Another author whose debut, Burial Rites (reviewed here!), I adored. I can't wait to get my hands on a copy of The Good People which, like Burial Rites, is set in the 19th century but this time in Ireland.

The Women in the Castle by Jessica Shattuck: This novel is set in Germany after the Second World War and follows the widow of a German resistor who was killed in a failed attempt to assassinate Hitler in 1944. She has made a promise to her dead husband to rescue other widows of the resistance and make a home for all of them in the grand house of her husband's ancestors. I think there's a real lack of historical fiction set in Germany during or after the Second World War, and this sounds fantastic.

Which books made your list this week?

Top Ten Tuesday | So Underrated

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature created at The Broke and the Bookish. Each week you compile a list of ten books which coincide with that week's theme. You can find everything you need to know about joining in here!

This week's theme is 'Top Ten Books We Enjoyed That Have Under 2000 Ratings On Goodreads', so this week will be a good opportunity to show some severely underrated books some well-deserved attention!

Peter and Alice by John Logan: I don't tend to read plays that often, I'd much rather see them performed, but I'm so glad I read this one. John Logan's a fairly famous script and screenwriter; he wrote Gladiator and Skyfall, and also created Penny Dreadful, which was one of my favourite shows until that horrifically rushed and disappointing ending. Le sigh. Peter and Alice is a fairly short play based on the true meeting of Alice Liddell and Peter Llewelyn Davies, the real-life inspirations behind Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Peter Pan. It's wonderful.

Disturbance by Ivy Alvarez: This is a poetry collection published by Seren Books, where I used to work, and I think it's fantastic. It's narrative poetry that tells the story about a family and their community after the father of the family murders his wife and son and then kills himself. It's so well executed, and so worth your time.

Signal to Noise by Silvia Moreno-Garcia: I'm never going to miss an opportunity to mention this book. It's one of my favourite books of all time and I wish more people would read it because it so deserves to be read. Check it out!

Beyond the Pale by Emily Urquhart: The first piece of non-fiction on my list this week. Emily Urquhart is a folklorist whose daughter was born with albinism. She decided to explore how albinism has been portrayed in folklore, the history of albinism and the way people with albinism are treated all around the world. Parts of this book are harrowing, but it's so worth reading and so interesting.

Corrag by Susan Fletcher: A brilliant piece of historical fiction based on The Massacre of Glencoe, where a young girl, Corrag, is accused of witchcraft and murder and waits to be burned at the stake. If you like novels such as Burial Rites and Alias Grace, you'll like this too.

Unicorn Tracks by Julia Ember: This book has unicorns in it. What else do I need to say to get you to read it?

Jane Eyre's Sisters by Jody Gentian Bower: More non-fiction, but this time literary criticism. Jane Eyre's Sisters explores the heroine's journey, rather than the hero's journey, and I thoroughly enjoyed it - this is the book that got me reading non-fiction for my own enjoyment!

The Undressed by Jemma L. King: My favourite poetry collection. Jemma L. King wrote The Undressed after finding old photographs from the 19th/early 20th centuries of women in rather risque positions. In this collection King gives each of the women a name and a voice of their own, and it's fantastic.

The Creation of Anne Boleyn by Susan Bordo: The last piece of non-fiction on this list, and possibly my favourite. This isn't a history book about Anne Boleyn, but rather a cultural look at Anne. Bordo explores how Anne Boleyn has been portrayed in historical fiction and TV dramas, and looks at how people have seen her as everything from an incestuous whore to the mother of the Reformation. It's such a good book.

Rolling in the Deep by Mira Grant: If you like found footage films like The Blair Witch Project or Trollhunter, you'll enjoy this little novella which is basically a literary equivalent. I had so much fun reading this, and as someone who doesn't tend to read many mermaid books I really enjoyed this one.

Which books made your list this week?

Review | Unicorn Tracks by Julia Ember

Unicorn Tracks

by Julia Ember

My Rating: 

After a savage attack drives her from her home, sixteen-year-old Mnemba finds a place in her cousin Tumelo’s successful safari business, where she quickly excels as a guide. Surrounding herself with nature and the mystical animals inhabiting the savannah not only allows Mnemba’s tracking skills to shine, it helps her to hide from the terrible memories that haunt her.

Mnemba is employed to guide Mr. Harving and his daughter, Kara, through the wilderness as they study unicorns. The young women are drawn to each other, despite that fact that Kara is betrothed. During their research, they discover a conspiracy by a group of poachers to capture the Unicorns and exploit their supernatural strength to build a railway. Together, they must find a way to protect the creatures Kara adores while resisting the love they know they can never indulge.

If you somehow didn't already know, I love unicorns. I also love stories that feature leading LGBT+ ladies. So when I discovered that Julia Ember's debut novel combined these two things, I knew I had to have it.

I've had the pleasure of speaking to Julia Ember quite a bit on Twitter and she's absolutely lovely, as is her debut.

Unicorn Tracks takes place in a world not entirely unlike our own where fantastical creatures are the norm. It's common for tourists to travel to Nazwimbe to go on safari and see everything from mermaids to phoenixes, but unicorns are somewhat rarer, so when safari guide and tracker Mnemba is given the job of leading a researcher and his daughter, Kara, into the wilderness in search of unicorns she has a real challenge on her hand, especially when they discover that unicorns are going missing.

Mnemba and Kara decide to investigate and stumble into something much bigger than they anticipated, all while trying to resist the growing attraction between them.

I love the ideas behind Unicorn Tracks; as far as I'm concerned there are way too few unicorns in fiction, and I mean that in all seriousness. There are classics like The Last Unicorn and they pop up in series such as Harry Potter, but they're very rarely included as a main feature in a story, especially if said story isn't aimed at children. There are dragons, vampires, werewolves, mermaids and faeries everywhere, but unicorns have been left behind.

What I love about Unicorn Tracks is this completely new take on unicorns; I've never seen them in anything but a European/European-inspired setting, so to place them as safari animals in a country that I'm assuming is an alternate Zimbabwe is such an original idea and I loved it. I mean if I could go on safari and see unicorns I so would, and I'd never want to leave.

Ember's characters are a lot of fun, too. Through Mnemba and Kara, Ember explores themes of forgiveness, choice and cultural differences, and I really appreciated that this is a book with an LGBT+ relationship at its centre that isn't about the characters' sexuality. 

The only thing I wanted from this book was more. I think Unicorn Tracks could have benefited from being longer, as there'd be more time to discuss everything Ember has included; the story, and Mnemba and Kara's relationship in particular, felt a little too rushed for me. There's so much here that's great, so I would have loved even more scenes of Mnemba and Kara exploring the wilderness and encountering even more mythological creatures.

What's most exciting about Unicorn Tracks is what else we can expect from Ember as an author. We need more voices in fiction that don't treat LGBT+ characters like parables of what it means to identify as queer, but instead write fun, exciting stories where the characters just so happen to be LGBT+.

I'm looking forward to whatever Ember does next!

This Week in Books | 20/04/16

This week I'm joining in with Lipsy @ Lipsyy Lost & Found to talk about the books I've been reading recently!

NOW: I've picked up Jamaica Inn and so far I'm enjoying it. I love Daphne du Maurier, she's well on her way to being one of my favourite writers, and I think I might be going to the real Jamaica Inn in the summer so I'm looking forward to getting this book under my belt!

THEN: I recently read Karen Russell's debut collection, St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves, and unfortunately I didn't like it as much as I hoped I would. Look out for my review next week!

NEXT: Tomorrow is the release day of Julia Ember's debut, Unicorn Tracks, which I'm very excited to read. I've pre-ordered a copy and I'll be diving into it as soon as it arrives!

What have you been reading recently?

2016 Releases I've Pre-Ordered: The Updated Version

Earlier this year I wrote a post about some of the 2016 releases I've pre-ordered, and today I'm back with an updated version because some of the books I mentioned last time have since been released and there are some books that have since become available to pre-order!

The Tale of Tales by Giambattista Basile (Penguin Classics, April): Before the Brothers Grimm, before Charles Perrault, before Hans Christian Andersen, there was Giambattista Basile, a seventeenth-century poet from Naples, Italy, whom the Grimms credit with recording the first national collection of fairy tales. The Tale of Tales opens with Princess Zoza, unable to laugh no matter how funny the joke. Her father, the king, attempts to make her smile; instead he leaves her cursed, whereupon the prince she is destined to marry is snatched up by another woman. To expose this impostor and win back her rightful husband, Zoza contrives a storytelling extravaganza: fifty fairy tales to be told by ten sharp-tongued women (including Zoza in disguise) over five days.

Summer Days, Summer Nights ed. by Stephanie Perkins (Pan MacMillan, June): Maybe it's the long, lazy days, or maybe it's the heat making everyone a little bit crazy. Whatever the reason, summer is the perfect time for love to bloom. Summer Days, Summer Nights: Twelve Love Stories, written by twelve bestselling young adult writers and edited by the international bestselling author Stephanie Perkins, will have you dreaming of sunset strolls by the lake. So set out your beach chair and grab your sunglasses. You have twelve reasons this summer to soak up the sun and fall in love.

Unicorn Tracks by Julia Ember (Harmony Ink Press, April): After a savage attack drives her from her home, sixteen-year-old Mnemba finds a place in her cousin Tumelo’s successful safari business, where she quickly excels as a guide. Surrounding herself with nature and the mystical animals inhabiting the savannah not only allows Mnemba’s tracking skills to shine, it helps her to hide from the terrible memories that haunt her. Mnemba is employed to guide Mr. Harving and his daughter, Kara, through the wilderness as they study unicorns. The young women are drawn to each other, despite that fact that Kara is betrothed. During their research, they discover a conspiracy by a group of poachers to capture the Unicorns and exploit their supernatural strength to build a railway. Together, they must find a way to protect the creatures Kara adores while resisting the love they know they can never indulge.

Of Fire and Stars by Audrey Coulthurst (Balzer + Bray, November): Betrothed since childhood to the prince of Mynaria, Princess Dennaleia has always known what her future holds. Her marriage will seal the alliance between Mynaria and her homeland, protecting her people from other hostile lands. But Denna has a secret. She possesses an Affinity for fire—a dangerous gift for the future queen of a kingdom where magic is forbidden. Now, Denna must learn the ways of her new home while trying to hide her growing magic. To make matters worse, she must learn to ride Mynaria’s formidable warhorses before her coronation—and her teacher is the person who intimidates her most, the prickly and unconventional Princess Amaranthine (called Mare), sister of her betrothed. When a shocking assassination leaves the kingdom reeling, Mare and Denna reluctantly join forces to search for the culprit. As the two work together, each discovers there’s more to the other than she thought. Mare is surprised by Denna’s intelligence and bravery, while Denna is drawn to Mare’s independent streak. Soon their friendship is threatening to blossom into something more. But with dangerous conflict brewing that makes the alliance more important than ever, acting on their feelings could be deadly. Forced to choose between their duty and their hearts, Mare and Denna must find a way to save their kingdoms—and each other.

Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler (Knopf Doubleday, June): Kate Battista feels stuck. How did she end up running house and home for her eccentric scientist father and uppity, pretty younger sister Bunny? Plus, she’s always in trouble at work – her pre-school charges adore her, but their parents don’t always appreciate her unusual opinions and forthright manner. Dr. Battista has other problems. After years out in the academic wilderness, he is on the verge of a breakthrough. His research could help millions. There’s only one problem: his brilliant young lab assistant, Pyotr, is about to be deported. And without Pyotr, all would be lost. When Dr. Battista cooks up an outrageous plan that will enable Pyotr to stay in the country, he’s relying – as usual – on Kate to help him. Kate is furious: this time he’s really asking too much. But will she be able to resist the two men’s touchingly ludicrous campaign to bring her around?

As I Descended by Robin Talley (HarperTeen, September): Maria Lyon and Lily Boiten are their school’s ultimate power couple—even if no one knows it but them. Only one thing stands between them and their perfect future: campus superstar Delilah Dufrey. Golden child Delilah is a legend at the exclusive Acheron Academy, and the presumptive winner of the distinguished Cawdor Kingsley Prize. She runs the school, and if she chose, she could blow up Maria and Lily’s whole world with a pointed look, or a carefully placed word. But what Delilah doesn’t know is that Lily and Maria are willing to do anything—absolutely anything—to make their dreams come true. And the first step is unseating Delilah for the Kingsley Prize. The full scholarship, awarded to Maria, will lock in her attendance at Stanford―and four more years in a shared dorm room with Lily. Maria and Lily will stop at nothing to ensure their victory—including harnessing the dark power long rumored to be present on the former plantation that houses their school. But when feuds turn to fatalities, and madness begins to blur the distinction between what’s real and what is imagined, the girls must decide where they draw the line.

The Muse by Jessie Burton (Picador, June): England, 1967. Odelle Bastien is a Caribbean émigré trying to make her way in London. When she starts working at the prestigious Skelton Art Gallery, she discovers a painting rumored to be the work of Isaac Robles, a young artist of immense talent and vision whose mysterious death has confounded the art world for decades. The excitement over the painting is matched by the intrigue around the conflicting stories of its discovery. Drawn into a complex web of secrets and deceptions, Odelle does not know what to believe or who she can trust, including her mesmerizing colleague, Marjorie Quick. Spain, 1937. Olive Schloss, the daughter of a Viennese Jewish art dealer and English heiress, follows her parents to Arazuelo, a poor, restless village on the southern coast. She grows close to Teresa, a young housekeeper, and her half-brother Isaac Robles, an idealistic and ambitious painter newly returned from the Barcelona salons. A dilettante buoyed by the revolutionary fervor that will soon erupt into civil war, Isaac dreams of being a painter as famous as his countryman, Picasso. Raised in poverty, these illegitimate children of the local landowner revel in exploiting this wealthy Anglo-Austrian family. Insinuating themselves into the Schloss’s lives, Teresa and Isaac help Olive conceal her artistic talents with devastating consequences that will echo into the decades to come.

Certain Dark Things by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Thomas Dunne Books, October): Welcome to Mexico City, an oasis in a sea of vampires. Here in the city, heavily policed to keep the creatures of the night at bay, Domingo is another trash-picking street kid, just hoping to make enough to survive. Then he meets Atl, the descendant of Aztec blood drinkers. Domingo is smitten. He clings to her like a barnacle until Atl relents and decides to let him stick around. But Atl's problems, Nick and Rodrigo, have come to find her. When they start to raise the body count in the city, it attracts the attention of police officers, local crime bosses, and the vampire community. Atl has to get out before Mexico City is upended, and her with it.

The Geek Feminist Revolution by Kameron Hurley (Tor, May): A powerful collection of essays on feminism, geek culture, and a writer’s journey, from one of the most important new voices in genre. The Geek Feminist Revolution is a collection of essays by double Hugo Award-winning essayist and science fiction and fantasy novelist Kameron Hurley. The book collects dozens of Hurley’s essays on feminism, geek culture, and her experiences and insights as a genre writer, including “We Have Always Fought,” which won the 2014 Hugo for Best Related Work. The Geek Feminist Revolution will also feature several entirely new essays written specifically for this volume. Unapologetically outspoken, Hurley has contributed essays to The Atlantic, Locus, Tor.com, and elsewhere on the rise of women in genre, her passion for SF/F, and the diversification of publishing.

The View From the Cheap Seats by Neil Gaiman (Headline, May): An inquisitive observer, thoughtful commentator, and assiduous craftsman, Neil Gaiman has long been celebrated for the sharp intellect and startling imagination that informs his bestselling fiction. Now, The View from the Cheap Seats brings together for the first time ever more than sixty pieces of his outstanding nonfiction. Analytical yet playful, erudite yet accessible, this cornucopia explores a broad range of interests and topics, including (but not limited to): authors past and present; music; storytelling; comics; bookshops; travel; fairy tales; America; inspiration; libraries; ghosts; and the title piece, at turns touching and self-deprecating, which recounts the author’s experiences at the 2010 Academy Awards in Hollywood.  Insightful, incisive, witty, and wise, The View from the Cheap Seats explores the issues and subjects that matter most to Neil Gaiman—offering a glimpse into the head and heart of one of the most acclaimed, beloved, and influential artists of our time.

Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire (Tor, April): Children have always disappeared under the right conditions; slipping through the shadows under a bed or at the back of a wardrobe, tumbling down rabbit holes and into old wells, and emerging somewhere... else. But magical lands have little need for used-up miracle children. Nancy tumbled once, but now she’s back. The things she’s experienced... they change a person. The children under Miss West’s care understand all too well. And each of them is seeking a way back to their own fantasy world. But Nancy’s arrival marks a change at the Home. There’s a darkness just around each corner, and when tragedy strikes, it’s up to Nancy and her new-found schoolmates to get to the heart of the matter. No matter the cost.

A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers (Hodder & Stoughton, October): Lovelace was once merely a ship's artificial intelligence. When she wakes up in an new body, following a total system shut-down and reboot, she has no memory of what came before. As Lovelace learns to negotiate the universe and discover who she is, she makes friends with Pepper, an excitable engineer, who's determined to help her learn and grow. Together, Pepper and Lovey will discover that no matter how vast space is, two people can fill it together.

Paper Girls, Vol.1 by Brian K. Vaughan, Cliff Chiang and Matthew Wilson (Image Comics, March): In the early hours after Halloween of 1988, four 12-year-old newspaper delivery girls uncover the most important story of all time. Suburban drama and otherworldly mysteries collide in this smash-hit series about nostalgia, first jobs, and the last days of childhood.

Rat Queens, Vol.3: Demons by Kurtis J. Wiebe, Tess Fowler and Tamra Bonvillain (Image Comics, April): Having survived the end of the world, the Queens follow Hannah back to where it all began: Mage University. A long perilous journey awaits the Rat Queens as they attempt to find out what happened to Hannah's father while battling their own demons.

American Vampire, Vol.8 by Scott Snyder and Rafael Albuquerque (DC Comics, July): Vampires in space? It's 1965. Pearl and Skinner escaped The Gray Trader with more questions than answers, and their search for clues leads them to ... NASA! You've never seen vampires like this before, as the second major story arc of American Vampire: Second Cycle begins!

Have you pre-ordered any books this year? Which books are you most looking forward to in 2016?

2016 Releases I've Pre-Ordered

So I went on a bit of a pre-ordering spree in the last couple of months of 2015 and January. I want to try and buy less books this year (hahaha) but now that I'm working I don't see why I shouldn't pre-order the books I really want to get my hands on! I know amazon is kind of evil in the bookworm, if I could afford to I wish I could buy all of my books from bookshops, but I do really like to pre-order stuff from amazon. Why? Because they don't charge you until they dispatch your order, so rather than spend a ridiculous amount all at once, my book buying is just as staggered throughout the year as it usually would be.

Anyway, here are the ten books I've pre-ordered this year. I also pre-ordered Stars Above, which has already arrived, and there are a few others I want to pre-order but haven't been able to yet, so these aren't the only books I'll be pre-ordering. It's most of them, though!

So Silvia Moreno-Garcia and Seanan McGuire (also known as Mira Grant) are releasing new books this year, and considering Signal to Noise and Feed are two of my favourite novels of all time, it's to be expected that I've already pre-ordered these two. Certain Dark Things is about vampires and drug lords in Mexico City, and it just sounds brilliant, while Every Heart a Doorway sounds like a darker and better version of Narnia.

I want to continue to read more non-fiction this year, and these two sound great. Firstly, the cover of The Geek Feminist Revolution is fantastic, and it sounds like a book that's going to be right up my alley; this is probably my most anticipated non-fiction book of this year! The View from the Cheap Seats is a collection of Neil Gaiman's essays, and considering Neil Gaiman is one of my favourite writers I'm looking forward to reading some of his non-fiction - other than Make Good Art, I haven't read any.

Unicorn Tracks is Julia Ember's debut novel that involves LGBT+ characters and unicorns. Naturally I've been ancticipating it for a while, and I can't wait to get my hands on my copy of it! Paper Girls is the first volume of a new series written by Brian K. Vaughan, the writer behind Saga, and illustrators Cliff Chiang and Matthew Wilson. It's been described as Stand By Me meets The War of the Worlds, so I'm there!

An anthology of female-led historical fiction is what awaits me in A Tyranny of Petticoats, featuring authors such as Marissa Meyer, Robin Talley and Elizabeth Wein. Needless to say, I'm excited. The last anthology I read was My True Love Gave to Me, and because I enjoyed it so much I decided I might as well go ahead and pre-order Summer Days & Summer Nights - I'm hoping there'll be a UK edition that matches my edition of My True Love Gave to Me.

Robin Talley's As I Descended and Anne Tyler's Vinegar Girl are both Shakespeare retellings, and as 2016 commemorates 400 years since Shakespeare's death I imagine we're going to see a lot of those. I really, really enjoyed Talley's debut Lies We Tell Ourselves, so I'm really looking forward to her modern day lesbian retelling of Macbeth, and while I haven't read any Anne Tyler before I think her retelling of The Taming of the Shrew sounds wonderful.

Have you pre-ordered any 2016 releases?