Book Ishness/News! (April 2019)

Good day, my Pagelings!

I have a whole passel of bookish news and book ishnesses to share with you today, and you’re not going to want to miss these freebies, a giveaway, some exciting books releasing, and my March Magics wrapup, as well as a look at my current nightstand of books I’m reading!

Giveaway!

Firstly, in case you missed it, I’m giving away a paperback of The Skin Map by Stephen R. Lawhead, and there’s still two days left to enter to win it, so hurry and enter here! (US only, ends midnight 4/17/18)

Vote for your favorite fantasy!

If you’ve read 2 or more of the 20 books that made it to the semi-final round of the fan-voted Alliance Awards hosted by Realm Makers, then you can vote for whichever ones you’ve read using a star-rating system! You still have a week left to vote — get it in before April 23! Vote here!

They include (titles link to my reviews if I have them): The Story Peddler (Lindsay A. Franklin), The Electrical Menagerie (Mollie E. Reeder), Spice Bringer (H.L. Burke), Song of Leira (Gillian Bronte Adams), Renegade Skyfarer (RJ Metcalf), Mark of the Raven (Morgan L. Busse), Fawkes (Nadine Brandes), Bitter Winter (Jaye L. Knight), Common (Laurie Lucking), and many others! So go check it out!

Jill Williamson Audiobook Kickstarter

Jill Williamson launched a kickstarter to fund audiobooks of her stellar Blood of Kings fantasy trilogy, and it has cool rewards if you support it! The first goal is fully funded, which means there WILL be an audiobook of By Darkness Hid, but there’s still a little to go to reach the first stretchmark (for an audiobook of To Darkness Fled) and it would be amazing if it could get even beyond that, so go check it out and see if it’s something you’re interested in! (I love this series and Jill was one of the first authors I got to meet, so the idea of this coming to audiobook is exciting to me. ^_^) [EDIT: The audiobook of book 2 is now funded! EEP! We need your help to get the final book in the trilogy funded too! :D]

Fairy Tale Central is live!

If you missed when I shared about it, the new website Fairy Tale Central, hosted by some of my dearest fairy tale loving pals, has been absolutely ROCKING it with reviews and commentaries and all sorts of fairy tale goodness, focused on the fairy tale of the month, Rumpelstiltskin. Sound like fun? IT IS! Be sure to check it out if you haven’t!

(And while you’re at it, check out the new website of one of the founders, Christine Smith, who moved from Musings of an Elf to a new and even more gorgeous site, ChristineSmithAuthor, and if fairy tales or fantasy or writing is your thing, you NEED to check out her blog!! <3)

APRIL RELEASES

So much coming out this month, and I feel like I’m even missing a few!

• H.L. Burke has a new book out, Match Cats, three short tales of cats and love — can’t wait to read this one!
• Flight of the Raven is coming AT LAST!! I adored the first book in this series by Morgan L. Busse (Mark of the Raven) and have been dying to read the sequel ever since. It’s arriving April 30th and I could not be more excited!
• Encircled, a collection of six fairytale retellings by six authors, including Laurie Lucking, J.M. Hackman, and Jebraun Clifford, released TODAY and is so pretty sitting shiny and new in my Kindle. I can’t wait to check it out!
• I just read Shadow Figure, which is a short story releasing in just a few days from E.B. Dawson. It’s the sequel to Government Man (another short story), kinda dystopian and sooo intense but I loved it! I’ll be reviewing several stories by this author soon. 😀
• Cait at Paper Fury has a new book out, The Boy Who Steals Houses, and it sounds like a fabulous contemporary novel!
• This Cursed Flame by Selina J. Eckert, releasing April 27, is available for preorder and features a mix of urban and portal fantasy, elemental magic, genies and djinn, some fabulous female friendships and delightful characters, stunning settings that feel straight out of Pinterest fantasy art boards (in the best possible way), and a talking ocelot! I loved this one, and totally recommend it! (Disclaimer: I did edit it. But. You know. It’s still unbiased-ly good. ;))
• A Greater Strength from Rebecca P. Minor (who runs the Realm Makers writers conference) also released today! I haven’t read the first book yet but it’s FREE at the moment and features elves, so I’m looking forward to reading it — plus, just look at the gorgeous cover of this sequel! :O
• The Fourth Musketeer (Part 2) just came to Patreon from Kyle Robert Shultz, with more Julio and the Three Musketeers and a certain other fan-favorite character. It’s so, so good! (One of these days the Patreon stories will come to a collection for other readers, but for now, there they are.) (And I did edit this one as well.)
• Speaking of things I’ve edited and also speaking of Kyle, he has two nonfictions releasing this month! (Yes, this boy has been busy. XD) The 10,000-Word Secret is a short nonfiction book available for free to subscribers of his new nonfiction-and-writing related newsletter, and Not Write Now is a hilarious and brilliant reverse-psychology book on writing, which I totally recommend! It. Is. Perfect. XD It’s releasing April 30th and is up for preorder too, and you can check out his post about both of these.
• And finally, Hazel B. West (author of my favorite Modern Tales of Na Fianna books) is coming out with an urban fantasy retelling of Hades and Persephone called The Flower of the Underworld which I NEED IN MY LIFE. I’ll be sharing about it for the blog tour when it releases next week on April 23!

Wait, not quite finished!

C. M. Banschbach has a new short story out, free for subscribers to her newsletter! It’s a short story prequel to something you may have heard me flailing about as “The Mountain Baron” which is now going to be TWO books, the first of which, Outcast’s Oath, is releasing this summer (and features the character I call my smol floof of anger management issues, Rhys the Mountain Baron). I’M SO EXCITED. ❤

Definitely check out the short story! 😀 (Because it’s free and I beta-read it so I know it’s amazing, and you need this snarky Scottish-like epicness in your life. YOU JUST DO.)

---

MY READING NEWS

APRIL NIGHTSTAND

Oh, look, we’re halfway through April already. Wonder how that happened . . . *nervous laughter*

Instead of making lofty reading goals that I knew I wouldn’t make, I just took a photo of all the books I was currently reading when April hit (pictured above) and have fit in a couple of small things since.

• I actually read TWO nonfictions this month (*gasp* Three if you count reading The 10,000-Word Secret again, since I edited it.) Odyssey of a Texas Sailor — a true story of a Texan man attempting to sail from England in a boat by himself in 1985, told in his journal which is highly amusing, and gathered by his daughter and published. Larger than life, fun, and absolutely fascinating! And Oh Snap! I’m Making Money . . . Now What? by Chris Morris, which is the only accounting book with a sense of humor, apparently, and was useful. 🙂
• I finished my 6th read of Howl’s Moving Castle (left over from March Magics) and I REGRET NOTHING. I love that book so, so much!
• I’m listening to The Electrical Menagerie on AUDIOBOOK and having a blast! I’ve been meaning to reread that one since I finished it last year, so this is a treat. 😀 I’ll be reviewing the audiobook when I finish, so stay tuned! (CARTHAGE AND HUXLEY FOREVER. ❤ )
• I’m also listening to Cress, though I am not very far in yet and have sort of put it on hold until I finish The Electrical Menagerie . . . but I love it so far and am looking forward to returning to it. 🙂
• And I finally got back to my re-read aloud of Second Son, and am loving that! BRANT! ❤
• I’m halfway into the ebook of Spindle by W.R. Gingell, Fellowship of Fantasy Bookclub book of the month. I ADORE IT SO FAR! It’s like Sleeping Beauty with a Howl’s Moving Castle flavor. 😀
• I’ve also been beta-reading and copyediting, and recently binge-read a whole handful of sci-fi short stories by E.B. Dawson and got ADDICTED to them. They’re so good, halp! (And I don’t even read sci-fi??) I’ll be reviewing those soon because I MUST FLAIL.

So! There’s the first half of my reading for April. 😀

MARCH MAGICS Wrapup

Yes, hello, March ended over two weeks ago and I haven’t shared about how my March Magics went! (But don’t worry, wizards are never late, and I was reading about a lot of them, so clearly I’m immune to lateness too.)

Here are the Pratchett and Diana Wynne Jones books I finished in March — not very many, but so delightful!

• The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett was SO SO GOOD. I adored it. 😀 (Those Nac Mac Feegle, though! XD) Plus, the illustrated copy I found at my library was the coolest. O_O
• My reread of Reflections by Diana Wynne Jones was absolutely delightful. ❤ I loved revisiting her thoughts on fantasy, writing, children’s books, and of course her own works. So much gold!
• And Hexwood was brilliant and I still love it SO MUCH — plus it was fantastic to read it now that I knew what was actually going on. XD I think it’s going to need at least a third read at some point! (AND MORDION. I HAVE SO MANY FEELS.)
• And I read about half of Howl’s Moving Castle, which I finished in April, and is still my FAVORITE BOOK EVER. ❤

March Reads

I didn’t read much in March that wasn’t March-Magics related, but let’s see . . .

• Healer’s Bane was a fascinating novella with a gaslamp/dystopian type flavor. I really enjoyed it and have many feels! Read my review.
• The 10,000-Word Secret I already mentioned and it’s pretty cool (and free!).
• And also This Cursed Flame! I guess when I edit things and then they come out the next month, it’s handy, since I know they’re good and can tell you to go look them up! 😉
• So yeah, those and March Magics books are all I managed to read in March, but I guess it’s still a reasonable number of books, and they were all really good, so. 😀

Whew! I think that’s it on the news front. So much exciting bookishness going on! What book things are you excited about? Let me know in a comment! Thanks for reading! 🙂

Advertisement