The fact that I might not have been reading too much since around July/August time, seems to have done very little to temper my need to buy books. Perhaps my partner does have a point when he says I should read first, then buy more. Although the site of a particularly well stocked bookcase does bring me a certain type of joy.

Below you’ll find a list of the books I’ve collected over the past couple of months. As it is a bit of a longer one this time I’ll spare you the rambling about why I picked up each and every one. I will say though that Instagram advertising has been particularly effective for once. I can’t be the only one who gets specific ads for high fantasy series that soon will be released on Amazon Prime / Netflix / HBO, right? I suppose I might be one of the few though who insists on reading a book series before they come out on the screen, just so I can torture myself watching the highly unsuccesful and unfaithful adaptations.

The Eye of the World

By Robert Jordan - Published by Orbit - First published on the 15th of January 1990

Synopsis:

‘The Wheel of Time turns and Ages come and go, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth returns again. In the Third Age, an Age of Prophecy, the World and Time themselves hang in the balance. What was, what will be, and what is, may yet fall under the Shadow.

When The Two Rivers is attacked by Trollocs-a savage tribe of half-men, half-beasts- five villagers flee that night into a world they barely imagined, with new dangers waiting in the shadows and in the light.’

The Great Hunt

By Robert Jordan - Published by Orbit - First published on the 15th of November 1990

Synopsis:

‘The Forsaken are loose, the Horn of Valere has been found and the Dead are rising from their dreamless sleep. The Prophecies are being fulfilled - but Rand al'Thor, the shepherd the Aes Sedai have proclaimed as the Dragon Reborn, desperately seeks to escape his destiny.

Rand cannot run for ever. With every passing day the Dark One grows in strength and strives to shatter his ancient prison, to break the Wheel, to bring an end to Time and sunder the weave of the Pattern.

And the Pattern demands the Dragon.’

Clockwork Angel

By Cassandra Clare - Published by Margaret K. McElderry Books - First published on the 1st of September 2015

Synopsis:

‘ When sixteen-year-old Tessa Gray crosses the ocean to find her brother, her destination is England, the time is the reign of Queen Victoria, and something terrifying is waiting for her in London’s Downworld, where vampires, warlocks and other supernatural folk stalk the gaslit streets. Only the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the world of demons, keep order amidst the chaos.

Kidnapped by the mysterious Dark Sisters, members of a secret organization called The Pandemonium Club, Tessa soon learns that she herself is a Downworlder with a rare ability: the power to transform, at will, into another person. What’s more, the Magister, the shadowy figure who runs the Club, will stop at nothing to claim Tessa’s power for his own.

Friendless and hunted, Tessa takes refuge with the Shadowhunters of the London Institute, who swear to find her brother if she will use her power to help them. She soon finds herself fascinated by—and torn between—two best friends: James, whose fragile beauty hides a deadly secret, and blue-eyed Will, whose caustic wit and volatile moods keep everyone in his life at arm’s length…everyone, that is, but Tessa. As their search draws them deep into the heart of an arcane plot that threatens to destroy the Shadowhunters, Tessa realizes that she may need to choose between saving her brother and helping her new friends save the world…and that love may be the most dangerous magic of all.’

The Waiting Rooms

By Eve Smith - Published by Orenda Books - First published on the 14th of April 2020

Synopsis:

‘Decades of spiralling drug resistance have unleashed a global antibiotic crisis. Ordinary infections are untreatable, and a scratch from a pet can kill. A sacrifice is required to keep the majority safe: no one over seventy is allowed new antibiotics. The elderly are sent to hospitals nicknamed 'The Waiting Rooms' ... hospitals where no one ever gets well.

Twenty years after the crisis takes hold, Kate begins a search for her birth mother, armed only with her name and her age. As Kate unearths disturbing facts about her mother's past, she puts her family in danger and risks losing everything. Because Kate is not the only secret that her mother is hiding. Someone else is looking for her, too.’

The Devil and The Dark Water

By Stuart Turton - Published by Sourcebooks Landmark - First published on the 6th of October 2020

Synopsis:

‘It's 1634 and Samuel Pipps, the world's greatest detective, is being transported to Amsterdam to be executed for a crime he may, or may not, have committed. Travelling with him is his loyal bodyguard, Arent Hayes, who is determined to prove his friend innocent.

But no sooner are they out to sea than devilry begins to blight the voyage. A twice-dead leper stalks the decks. Strange symbols appear on the sails. Livestock is slaughtered.

And then three passengers are marked for death, including Samuel.

Could a demon be responsible for their misfortunes?

With Pipps imprisoned, only Arent can solve a mystery that connects every passenger onboard. A mystery that stretches back into their past and now threatens to sink the ship, killing everybody on board.’

Piranesi

By Susanna Clarke - Published by Bloomsbury Publishing - First published on the 15th of September 2020

Synopsis:

‘Piranesi's house is no ordinary building: its rooms are infinite, its corridors endless, its walls are lined with thousands upon thousands of statues, each one different from all the others. Within the labyrinth of halls an ocean is imprisoned; waves thunder up staircases, rooms are flooded in an instant. But Piranesi is not afraid; he understands the tides as he understands the pattern of the labyrinth itself. He lives to explore the house.

There is one other person in the house—a man called The Other, who visits Piranesi twice a week and asks for help with research into A Great and Secret Knowledge. But as Piranesi explores, evidence emerges of another person, and a terrible truth begins to unravel, revealing a world beyond the one Piranesi has always known.’

The Midnight Library

By Matt Haig - Published by Canongate Books Ltd. - First published on the 13th of August 2020

Synopsis:

‘Somewhere out beyond the edge of the universe there is a library that contains an infinite number of books, each one the story of another reality. One tells the story of your life as it is, along with another book for the other life you could have lived if you had made a different choice at any point in your life. While we all wonder how our lives might have been, what if you had the chance to go to the library and see for yourself? Would any of these other lives truly be better?’

We Hunt the Flame

By Hafsah Faizal - Published by Macmillan Children's Books - First published on the 14th of May 2019

Synopsis:

‘Zafira is the Hunter. Forced to disguise herself as a man, she risks everything to provide for her people.

Nasir is the Prince of Death. A feared assassin who is forever bound to the command of his father, the sultan.

Both are legends in their kingdom – but neither wants to be. And when Zafira embarks on a dangerous quest to return magic to their suffering land, Nasir is sent on a similar mission. But as their journey unfolds, an anvient evil begins to stir . . .’

The Bone Shard Daughter

By Andrea Stewart - Published by Orbit - First published on the 8th of September 2020

Synopsis:

‘The emperor's reign has lasted for decades, his mastery of bone shard magic powering the animal-like constructs that maintain law and order. But now his rule is failing, and revolution is sweeping across the Empire's many islands.

Lin is the emperor's daughter and spends her days trapped in a palace of locked doors and dark secrets. When her father refuses to recognise her as heir to the throne, she vows to prove her worth by mastering the forbidden art of bone shard magic.

Yet such power carries a great cost, and when the revolution reaches the gates of the palace, Lin must decide how far she is willing to go to claim her birthright - and save her people.’

The Sin Eater

By Megan Campisi - Published by Atria Books - First published on the 31st of March 2020

Synopsis:

‘ For the crime of stealing bread, fourteen-year-old May receives a life sentence: she must become a Sin Eater—a shunned woman, brutally marked, whose fate is to hear the final confessions of the dying, eat ritual foods symbolizing their sins as a funeral rite, and thereby shoulder their transgressions to grant their souls access to heaven.

Orphaned and friendless, apprenticed to an older Sin Eater who cannot speak to her, May must make her way in a dangerous and cruel world she barely understands. When a deer heart appears on the coffin of a royal governess who did not confess to the dreadful sin it represents, the older Sin Eater refuses to eat it. She is taken to prison, tortured, and killed. To avenge her death, May must find out who placed the deer heart on the coffin and why.’

Right, that’s another 10 books for the ever growing ‘to-read list’. What are your thoughts. Where any of these diamonds in the rough? Is your all time favourite nestled in amongst these titles. Do you think I am absolutely waisting my time with one of them? Let me know in the comment section below, and until then - just one more page!