To Be Read: March 2023

This may be a bit early to say, but I think I’ve found my stride this year. I’ve had two amazing reading months and recently I’ve found myself itching to read more and more. Thankfully I’m now in a job that allows for more reading time and I’ve really been enjoying it lately.

I’ve just received a huge email with ARCs from HarperCollins and I’m so excited to get stuck into new 2023 reads. I haven’t actually mentioned any in this post as I’ve either started/read the more recent ones or the release dates are far away.

The Love Wager by Lynn Painter

*I was given a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review*

After falling completely in love with Better Than the Movies, I am so excited to read The Love Wager. I’ve read one other Lynn Painter book and I wasn’t too impressed, but it was quite short so I like to think it was down to not having enough time for development.

I have recently seen people talking about how good The Do Over is, so I want to check that out at some point.

Synopsis: Hallie Piper is turning over a new leaf. After belly-crawling out of a hotel room (hello, rock bottom), she decides it’s time to become a full-on adult.

She gets a new apartment, a new haircut, and a new wardrobe, but when she logs into the dating app that she has determined will find her new love, she sees none other than Jack, the guy whose room she’d snuck out of.

Through the app, and after the joint agreement that they are absolutely not interested in each other, Jack and Hallie become partners in their respective searches for The One. They text each other about their dates, often scheduling them at the same restaurant so that if things don’t go well, the two of them can get tacos afterward.

Spoiler: they get a lot of tacos together.

Discouraged by the lack of prospects, Jack and Hallie make a wager to see who can find true love first, but when they agree to be fake dates for a weekend wedding, all bets are off.

As they pretend to be a couple, lines become blurred and they each struggle to remember why the other was a bad idea to begin with.

Demon in the Wood by Leigh Bardugo and Dani Pendergast

I’ve been excited to read this ever since it was announced and after buying it recently, I can’t wait to get stuck in. I don’t buy graphic novels in physical form very often as they’re usually quite expensive, but thanks to a Waterstones gift card I own this.

March is the perfect time to read this as season two of Shadow & Bone is coming out. Which I am very excited for.

Synopsis: Before he led Ravka’s Second Army, before he created the Fold, and long before he became the Darkling, he was just a lonely boy burdened by an extraordinary power.

Eryk and his mother, Lena, have spent their lives on the run. But they will never find a safe haven. They are not only Grisha—they are the deadliest and rarest of their kind. Feared by those who wish to destroy them and hunted by those who would exploit their gifts, they must hide their true abilities wherever they go. But sometimes deadly secrets have a way of revealing themselves…

One For My Enemy by Olivie Blake

*I was given a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review*

I read The Atlas Six not long ago and while I wasn’t blown away by it, I did like the style in which Olivie Blake writes. This may be similar, or it might be completely different. Either way I’m interested to see what it’s like.

Synopsis: In New York City where we lay our scene, two rival witch families fight to maintain control of their respective criminal ventures. On one side of the conflict are the Antonova sisters, each one beautiful, cunning, and ruthless, and their mother, the elusive supplier of premium intoxicants known only as Baba Yaga. On the other side, the influential Fedorov brothers serve their father, the crime boss known as Koschei the Deathless, whose community extortion ventures dominate the shadows of magical Manhattan.

After twelve years of tenuous coexistence, a change in one family’s interests causes a rift in the existing stalemate. When bad blood brings both families to the precipice of disaster, fate intervenes with a chance encounter, and in the aftershocks of a resurrected conflict, everyone must choose a side. As each of the siblings struggles to stake their claim, fraying loyalties threaten to rot each side from the inside out.

If that is, the enmity between empires doesn’t destroy them first.