A Sea Change by Cassandra Clare
I can’t begin to tell you how excited I am to receive my first ever Cassandra Clare ARC. It’s been such a long time since I’ve read one of her books and I miss the world of Shadowhunters so much. I really need to cherish these last few books we’re going to get in this world. I”m not sure I’ll ever be ready to say goodbye to them, but at least I can re-read the previous books whenever I want.
I wasn’t massively fond of Matthew in Chain of Thorns so I’m hoping this book will redeem him for me. Slight spoilers if you haven’t read The Last Hours yet, but the love triangle was so pointless. As they are in all of Cassandra Clare’s series (maybe other than The Infernal Devices and The Dark Artifices – the best series if you ask me).
Synopsis: Embark on a seafaring murder mystery from Greece to Constantinople with Matthew Fairchild, his loyal dog Oscar Wilde, and Sylvain Verlac, a captivating Parisian Shadowhunter.
Most travellers are running from—or searching for—something. But not Shadowhunter Matthew Fairchild and his loyal golden retriever, Oscar Wilde. No, Matthew is searching for himself aboard the Majestic, a grand 19th century ocean liner sailing from Greece to Constantinople.
Matthew wants nothing more than to mourn the death of a friend and peacefully enjoy his travels before reuniting with his friends James Herondale and Cordelia Carstairs at the London Institute of Shadowhunters—a secret society of angel-blooded humans who protect the mundane world from demons and Downworlders. But that’s interrupted when someone is murdered on the ship—and a vampire Downworlder lurks in the darkness.
Together with Sylvain Verlac, a mysterious and captivating Parisian Shadowhunter with a secret grief of his own, Matthew must find the murderer on the Majestic before death strikes again.
Hotel Limbo by Ben Harel
I mostly just have a bunch of graphic novel ARCs coming up as they’re all I’m willing to commit to at the moment. It’s taking me what feels like weeks to read books with less than 400 pages so graphic novels are a great change of pace.
This one looks right up my street. We all know I love anything spooky and slightly weird and this looks like it fits the bill perfectly. I’m intrigued to see what a graphic novel with 28 different artists will look like inside.
Synopsis: Welcome to the afterlife…may we take your bags? Hijinks and heartbreak await as this fan-favorite online comic becomes a gorgeous graphic novel!
After awakening in the middle of nowhere, a young man is forcefully inducted into the Hotel Limbo as its new bellboy (“BB” for short). Faced with magical masks, giant cats, a mysterious staff, and a hotel that just won’t sit still, BB will soon learn that helping with “baggage” means something very different when all the guests are dead.
In this series debut, writer Ben Harel teams up with 28 artists (!) from around the world to breathe life into a story about death. As comedy dances with drama and mystery, every tonal shift and blurred line is accentuated by an ever-changing visual style, creating a genre-bending medley of deadly (and death-ly) adventures.
The Court Charade by Flore Vesco
This graphic novel looks very cute and is probably the first ARC I’ll pick up from this list. I think it’s pretty short, so it will be a great change of pace to the slightly longer books I’ve been struggling to get through recently.
Synopsis: From the New York Times bestselling illustrators of Beauty and Beautiful Darkness comes a fleet, tongue-in-cheek adult fairy tale graphic novel where love is found in the least likely places and nothing is quite what it seems . . .
This lighthearted, sharply witty adult fairy tale is a delightful and quirky take on toxic workplaces, with a dash of Puss in Boots–style antics and a little romance thrown in for good measure.
Serine is a poor but plucky daughter of a sickly nobleman who must make her way in the royal court to avoid being married off once her father dies. Although she is illiterate and owns only one dress, she manages to charm her way into the fickle queen’s good graces—but the royal court is not a kind place for a country bumpkin.
Silly, sweet Serine must smarten up if she wants to survive the queen’s fits of pique, the court ladies’ gossip, and the royal advisor’s evil schemes.
With nothing but her wits and the help of the friendly, handsome torturer’s apprentice, can she find a way to save her job, save the kingdom, and find true love along the way? Or will she be forced to play the fool?
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Like this post? Why not read this one too: Book Confessions: Series I’m Never Going To Finish #12