March & April Book Haul! | 2021

Hi everyone! I’ve decided to do my March and April book haul together so here we go. I hadn’t thought I’d have that many books to show you, but (as always) I have a good few.

New Books

Providence | Max Barry

I managed to score this one in a competition at my local book club (and the next book too). I’ve never heard of this one before, but they were giving away some leftover review copies to the winner of the little games we played. Fingers crossed this is good (I’m ~obsessed~ with the cover).

Click to view blurb

It was built to kill our enemies. But now it’s got its own plans.

In the future, the war against aliens from the dark reaches of space has taken a critical turn. Once we approached the salamanders in peace… and they annihilated us. Now mankind has developed the ultimate killing machine, the Providence class of spaceship.

With the ships’ frightening speed, frightening intelligence and frightening weaponry, it’s now the salamander’s turn to be annihilated… in their millions.

The mismatched quartet of Talia, Gilly, Jolene and Anders are the crew on one of these destroyers. But with the ship’s computers designed to outperform human decision-making in practically all areas, they are virtual prisoners of the ship’s AI. IT will take them to where the enemy are, it will dictate the strategy in any battle, it will direct the guns….

The crew’s only role is to publicize their glorious war to a skeptical Earth. Social media and video clips are THEIR weapons in an endless charm offensive. THEIR chief enemies are not the space reptiles but each other, and boredom.

But then everything changes. A message comes from base: the Providence is going into the VZ, the Violet Zone, where there are no beacons and no communications with Earth. It is the heart of the enemy empire – and now the crew are left to wonder whether this is a mission of ultimate destruction or, more sinisterly, of ultimate self-destruction…

Love is a Revolution | Renée Watson

This was the other book I won at my book club and I’m really excited about it because I’ve read one of Watson’s other books and it was such a good read. I love the green of this cover too! I’ve heard some good things about this one so I’m expecting it will be a good read!

Click to view blurb

From New York Times bestselling and award-winning author Rene Watson comes a new YA–a love story about not only a romantic relationship but how a girl finds herself and falls in love with who she really is.

When Nala Robertson reluctantly agrees to attend an open mic night for her cousin-sister-friend Imani’s birthday, she finds herself falling in instant love with Tye Brown, the MC. He’s perfect, except . . . Tye is an activist and is spending the summer putting on events for the community when Nala would rather watch movies and try out the new seasonal flavors at the local creamery. In order to impress Tye, Nala tells a few tiny lies to have enough in common with him. As they spend more time together, sharing more of themselves, some of those lies get harder to keep up. As Nala falls deeper into keeping up her lies and into love, she’ll learn all the ways love is hard, and how self-love is revolutionary.

Stormdance | Jay Kristoff

This is my first Jay Kristoff book! I’m quite excited … but I’m also quite nervous. This author is so hyped up that I’m worried the books themselves won’t live up to it. I got this one in a blind date with a book, so I’m pretty chuffed to have got such an awesome book!

Click to view blurb

ONE GIRL AND A GRIFFIN AGAINST AN EMPIRE: A DYING LAND

The Shima Imperium verges on collapse. Land and sky have been poisoned by clockwork industrialisation, the Lotus Guild oppresses the populace and the nation’s Shogun is lost to his thirst for power.

AN IMPOSSIBLE QUEST

Yukiko and her warrior father are forced to hunt down a griffin at the Shogun’s command. But any fool knows griffins are extinct – and death will be the price of failure.

A HIDDEN GIFT

Disaster strikes and Yukiko is stranded in the wilderness with a fabled griffin, now furious and crippled. Although she hears his thoughts and saved his life, Yukiko knows he’d rather see her dead than help her. And discovery of the talent allowing them to communicate would mean her execution. Yet together, the pair will form an indomitable bond, and rise to challenge an empire.

Welcome to Blackwood | Khaiah Thomson

This is an indie author and so I’d never heard of this book before, but it came in the first Fable Crate box (Australian bookish subscription box) with a special cover and all! This sounds like an interesting paranormal story so I’m hoping this will be a fun page-turner!

Click to view blurb

Freya has spent her life on the run—trying to blend in amongst Mundanes. Like her father, she is a Syphon with the ability to draw energy from others, including their powers. When Freya accidentally draws energy from a friend, she and her family are on the run again and return to her mum’s hometown of Blackwood, where Freya’s abilities remain a secret.

Freya’s mum and brother are wolf shifters—genetics that skipped Freya. Freya has to decide by eighteen whether she joins their pack or remains independent.

Freya discovers Blackwood is a secretive community comprised mostly of Supernaturals like herself. Supers exist outside of mundane laws. With many communities like Blackwood competing for power, strict rules protect the Blackwood community.

Freya meets Beau, rumoured to be a lone wolf, although loosely attached to the Northern Blackwood wolves, her family’s rival pack. He is hostile towards Freya due to the power he senses in her, but when he rescues her from a risky situation, they become more than friends, creating tension with her family and rival packs.

What happens next in the town where nothing is normal could cost Freya her freedom…

The Iron Raven | Julia Kagawa

You have no idea just how excited I am for this! I’m a huge Julie Kagawa fan, or more specifically, I loved the Iron Fey series which I read whilst I was in high school and we passed the books around my whole friendship group, so I have very fond memories of reading this series. When it was announced that Kagawa was revisiting this world with this book, oh boy. Much excitement. Bring it on.

Click to view blurb

You may have heard of me…

Robin Goodfellow. Puck. Prankster, joker, raven, fool… King Oberon’s right-hand jester from A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The legends are many, but the truth will now be known as never before, as Puck finally tells his own story and faces a threat to the lands of Faery and the human world unlike any before.

With the Iron Queen Meghan Chase and her prince consort, Puck’s longtime rival Ash, and allies old and new by his side, Puck begins a fantastical and dangerous adventure not to be missed or forgotten.

The Girl From Munich | Tania Blanchard

This was another blind date with a book! I’ve seen this floating about the market and have been interested but not 100% sure. I find it hard to work out which historical fiction about WWII (let’s be honest, 90% of them look the same) will be the one that actually really good. I believe this has had great reviews so bring it on!

Click to view blurb

Germany, 1943. The choices she makes will change her life forever.

Growing up in Hitler’s Germany, Charlotte von Klein has big dreams for the future. Her mind is full of plans for a sumptuous wedding to her childhood sweetheart Heinrich while working for the Luftwaffe, proudly giving her all for the Fatherland.

But in 1943, the tide of the war is turning against Germany, and Lotte’s life of privilege and comfort begins to collapsing around her. As Hitler’s Reich abandons Germany and the country falls to the Allied forces, Lotte is forced to flee from the unfolding chaos to the country with the darkly attractive Erich Drescher, her Luftwaffe superior.

Amid the danger, pain and heartbreak of a country turning on itself, Lotte must forge a new life for herself. But as the country struggles to find its future, shadows of the past come rushing back and Lotte finds herself questioning everything she has fought for – love, duty and freedom.

Review Copies

The Ones We’re Meant to Find | Joan He

I can’t wait to read this! This is out now so you can get a copy and dive in. I got bogged down in some DNFs just before this came out so I haven’t got around to picking it up but it’s sitting on my bedside table ready to be read. Just LOOK at that cover! I received a copy of this via NetGalley (though admittedly, I also had pre-ordered a copy and had completely forgotten about that).

Click to view blurb

One of the most twisty, surprising, engaging page-turner YAs you’ll read this year—We Were Liars meets Black Mirror, with a dash of Studio Ghibli.

Cee has been trapped on an abandoned island for three years without any recollection of how she arrived, or memories from her life prior. All she knows is that somewhere out there, beyond the horizon, she has a sister named Kay, and it’s up to Cee to cross the ocean and find her.

In a world apart, 16-year-old STEM prodigy Kasey Mizuhara lives in an eco-city built for people who protected the planet―and now need protecting from it. With natural disasters on the rise due to climate change, eco-cities provide clean air, water, and shelter. Their residents, in exchange, must spend at least a third of their time in stasis pods, conducting business virtually whenever possible to reduce their environmental footprint. While Kasey, an introvert and loner, doesn’t mind the lifestyle, her sister Celia hated it. Popular and lovable, Celia much preferred the outside world. But no one could have predicted that Celia would take a boat out to sea, never to return.

Now it’s been three months since Celia’s disappearance, and Kasey has given up hope. Logic says that her sister must be dead. But nevertheless, she decides to retrace Celia’s last steps. Where they’ll lead her, she does not know. Her sister was full of secrets. But Kasey has a secret of her own.

Sistersong | Lucy Holland

I loved this! You can read my full review already if you want to know my thoughts. Big thank you to Pan Macmillan for sending a copy of this my way because I had no idea what a treat I was in for. This has trans representation in it and is set in 535AD – which is WILD. Would recommend this strongly if you’re after an addictive, incredible read.

Click to view blurb

535 AD. In the ancient kingdom of Dumnonia, King Cador’s children inherit a fragmented land abandoned by the Romans.

Riva, scarred in a terrible fire, fears she will never heal. Keyne battles to be seen as the king’s son, when born a daughter. And Sinne, the spoiled youngest girl, yearns for romance.

All three fear a life of confinement within the walls of the hold – a last bastion of strength against the invading Saxons. But change comes on the day ash falls from the sky, bringing Myrddhin, meddler and magician, and Tristan, a warrior whose secrets will tear the siblings apart. Riva, Keyne and Sinne must take fate into their own hands, or risk being tangled in a story they could never have imagined; one of treachery, love and ultimately, murder. It’s a story that will shape the destiny of Britain.

How to Disappear | Bruna Gomes

This was another book I’ve received via NetGalley and I’m really looking forward to reading it because it’s written in second person, which is super unusual (i.e. ‘you’, rather than ‘I’ or ‘she’). This is coming out on 9 June 2021 so ready yourselves for its release date. I’m anticipating picking it up around that time – what really drew my eye to this was the cover!

Click to view blurb

You want to disappear from society; you want to erase yourself. When your mediocre life in Bondi forces you to contemplate your own insignificance, escaping seems like the perfect fix— especially when your past isn’t even worth remembering. But after travelling from paradise to paradise, stealing things that aren’t yours and rejecting things that are, you come to realize that no one can hide from ghosts, not even you. You hate yourself. You will also come to find that you love yourself. It is merely a matter of accepting your roots.

Written entirely in second person by debut author Bruna Gomes, How to Disappear follows a nineteen-year-old girl, ‘You,’ as she loses her job, robs her friend, ditches her ex-boyfriend, and on a whim, catches a flight to New York City. She’s a thief haunted by ghosts. No matter where she goes, she feels the past chasing after her—until she finally learns to accept herself. In this cyclical voyage common to teens everywhere, filled with death, tears, and haircuts, love becomes something so foreign, yet so familiar, that it’s hard—yet not impossible—to grasp.

Saving Seymour | L. N. Loch

I was very kindly contacted by the author to review this book and how could I say no when the cover is so adorable?! This comes out on 15 June 2021 and I really hope I like it. I recommend expanding the blurb below to read what it’s about because it’s quite unique!

Click to view blurb

In a parallel world, black-and-white vision is the norm, and only a small minority who meet their Soulmate can see in color.

Ivan Notte has just met his Soulmate, and he isn’t happy about it. Maybe he could have handled seeing the world in color if his Soulmate hadn’t turned out to be a troubled artist. Winston Jinx is everything Ivan prides himself on hating. He’s a painter (so, without a real job), an activist (so, entitled), and he’s a giant smartass. Ivan knows things aren’t going to work, especially given Winston’s passion for the local orca pods that Galaxsea Theme Parks (Ivan’s company) stole its star attraction from.

Winston is equally miffed when he meets Ivan. After all, Winston is way too busy planning to jailbreak Seymour the orca to deal with some bigot who sneers at the word “orange.” And yet, said bigot keeps finding excuses to show up at Winston’s apartment with questions about the wild orcas, why Winston isn’t bothered by seeing in color, and what mysterious project is keeping Winston’s fridge stocked with salmon.

If Ivan is already slightly disturbed by his own infatuation, he’s mortified by it when he finds out about Winston’s plans to free Seymour. Not because he’s worried about the theme park—Galaxsea’s corporate culture is nightmarish—but because his coworker and ex, Mike Swan, would love an excuse to rid Seattle of one more activist, and he has already demonstrated his personal disdain for Winston.

Saving Seymour is an adult coming-of-age story about the trials that come with choosing happiness, discovering one’s sexuality, and love’s power for change.

Leave Me Alone | Christian Hull

I definitely need to get around to this one soon! Thanks to Allen & Unwin for sending me a copy, this one has already been released and I’ve been desperately trying to find a time to settle into it. Damn those books that bogged me down and threw off my reading schedule!

Click to view blurb

Christian Hull is a hardcore introvert. He loves being a little bit famous for his videos, but at the end of the day he’s a lone wolf – one who’s more interested in Caramilk on the couch than cocktails in the club. He’s a strong believer in Netflix and chilling at home, alone; he’s always the first to smokebomb social events, and he is in a committed relationship with his indoor plants.

Christian tells his behind-the-scenes story with his signature, completely unapologetic honesty, from growing up with triplet brothers to building a career in comedy; from his fear of moths to some of his more daring Grindr sexcapades. He invites you into his personal creative universe, where wearing a wig to make random videos and screaming swearwordsat resin pendants somehow turn out to be great decisions.

Leave Me Alone is a story of breaking the mould and embracing exactly who you are, even if that means telling people to leave you the f**k alone.

Trick of the Light | Fiona McCallum

Thanks to Pan Macmillan for sending me a copy of this one, too. My mum has read some of these books and says they’re a very light and easy read, so perhaps a perfect gift for someone looking for a easy read to pass the time!

Click to view blurb

Erica, newly widowed, is devastated to discover her venture capitalist husband left their finances in ruins. Determined to save her home while protecting her teenage daughters, she vows to get back on her feet without letting them, or anyone else, know the truth.

When her girls head off on a long-planned overseas adventure, Erica focuses on her much-loved job behind a makeup counter to keep her emotionally and financially afloat – although she is troubled by a peculiar encounter at work.

Then she loses her job, the darkness beckons and Erica’s life spirals downwards, further disturbed by strange occurrences in her house. Missing objects. Stopped clocks. Noises in the night. Should she doubt her very sanity? Can she swallow her pride and make herself reach out to her friends in time? Does she have a choice?

A moving story of loss, change and self-discovery from Australia’s master storyteller.

The Other Side of Beautiful | Kim Lock

I’m really excited to tuck into this one, my mum actually sneaked this off me before I’ve had a chance to read it and she said it was amazing! This isn’t coming out until 7 July 2021 so plenty of time to get excited about this people!

Click to view blurb

Lost & Found meets The Rosie Project in a stunning break-out novel where a vulnerable misfit is forced to re-engage with the world, despite her best efforts.

Meet Mercy Blain, whose house has just burnt down. Unfortunately for Mercy, this goes beyond the disaster it would be for most people: she hasn’t been outside that house for two years now.

Flung out into the world she’s been studiously ignoring, Mercy goes to the only place she can. Her not-quite-ex-husband Eugene’s house. But it turns out she can’t stay there, either.

And so begins Mercy’s unwilling journey. After the chance purchase of a cult classic campervan (read tiny, old and smelly), with the company of her sausage dog, Wasabi, and a mysterious box of cremated remains, Mercy heads north from Adelaide to Darwin.

On the road, through badly timed breakdowns, gregarious troupes of grey nomads, and run-ins with a rogue adversary, Mercy’s carefully constructed walls start crumbling. But what was Mercy hiding from in her house? And why is Eugene desperate to have her back in the city? They say you can’t run forever…

How to Mend a Broken Heart | Rachael Johns

This one was sent to me by Harlequin and I’m looking forward to picking it up! Keep your eyes peeled because I’m actually teaming up with mum on this one to provide you all with a Mum Review! However she raved about it so much that I really want to read it myself. This is out now and it has trans representation!

Click to view blurb

Summer in New Orleans means hot days, long nights, spooky stories and surprising new beginnings.

Felicity Bell has struggled to move on after her marriage broke down. Her ex has found love again, her children have their own lives, and it’s beginning to feel like her only comfort comes from her dog and her job as a taxidermist. So when Flick gets an offer to work in New Orleans for a few months, she’s drawn to the chance to make a fresh start.

Zoe is ready to start a family with her husband, but when he betrays her, she’s left shattered and desperate for a change of scenery. Joining her mother on the other side of the world to drown her sorrows seems the perfect solution.

Although both mother and daughter are wary of risking their hearts to love again, Theo, a jazz bar owner, and Jack, a local ghost hunter, offer fun, friendship and distraction. But all is not as it seems in New Orleans…

A chance meeting with Aurelia, a reclusive artist who surprises them with lessons from her life, prompts Flick and Zoe to reassess what they want too. Can all three women learn from the past in order to embrace their future?

Audiobooks

Only Human | Sylvain Neuvel

I’m finally starting on the third Themis Files book which is super exciting. I’ve listened to rest of the series via audiobook so naturally I decided to continue with the last book this way. This has such a great cast of characters, it’s well worth reading in this format!

Click to view blurb of book one

A girl named Rose is riding her new bike near home in Deadwood, South Dakota, when she falls through the earth. She wakes up at the bottom of a square-shaped hole, its walls glowing with intricate carvings. But the firemen who come to save her peer down upon something even stranger: a little girl in the palm of a giant metal hand.

Seventeen years later, the mystery of the bizarre artifact remains unsolved – the object’s origins, architects, and purpose unknown.

But some can never stop searching for answers.

Rose Franklin is now a highly trained physicist leading a top-secret team to crack the hand’s code. And along with her colleagues, she is being interviewed by a nameless interrogator whose power and purview are as enigmatic as the relic they seek. What’s clear is that Rose and her compatriots are on the edge of unravelling history’s most perplexing discovery-and finally figuring out what it portends for humanity. But once the pieces of the puzzle are in place, will the result be an instrument of lasting peace or a weapon of mass destruction?

An Echo in the Bone
& Written in My Own Heart’s Blood | Diana Gabaldon

There was a sale at Audible for one of the Outlander books so I managed to snag a couple this month, which is very exciting! This series is unlike anything else – if you haven’t read it yet, then I highly recommend you do! You won’t regret it!

Click to view blurb of book one

The year is 1945. Claire Randall, a former combat nurse, is just back from the war and reunited with her husband on a second honeymoon when she walks through a standing stone in one of the ancient circles that dot the British Isles. Suddenly she is a Sassenach—an “outlander”—in a Scotland torn by war and raiding border clans in the year of Our Lord…1743.

Hurled back in time by forces she cannot understand, Claire is catapulted into the intrigues of lairds and spies that may threaten her life, and shatter her heart. For here James Fraser, a gallant young Scots warrior, shows her a love so absolute that Claire becomes a woman torn between fidelity and desire—and between two vastly different men in two irreconcilable lives.

A History of What Comes Next | Sylvain Neuvel

I’ve been a big fan of Sylvain Neuvel ever since I read his Sleeping Giants series, so I was very excited about this book coming out this year! I decided to go ahead and read it via audiobook as that’s how I read the entire Sleeping Giants series and that was just amazing. Fingers crossed this is just as good!

Click to view blurb

Showing that truth is stranger than fiction, Sylvain Neuvel weaves a scfi thriller reminiscent of Blake Crouch and Andy Weir, blending a fast moving, darkly satirical look at 1940s rocketry with an exploration of the amorality of progress and the nature of violence in A History of What Comes Next.

Always run, never fight. Preserve the knowledge. Survive at all costs. Take them to the stars.

Over 99 identical generations, Mia’s family has shaped human history to push them to the stars, making brutal, wrenching choices and sacrificing countless lives. Her turn comes at the dawn of the age of rocketry. Her mission: to lure Wernher Von Braun away from the Nazi party and into the American rocket program, and secure the future of the space race.

But Mia’s family is not the only group pushing the levers of history: an even more ruthless enemy lurks behind the scenes.

A darkly satirical first contact thriller, as seen through the eyes of the women who make progress possible and the men who are determined to stop them…

9 thoughts on “March & April Book Haul! | 2021

  1. The Ones We’re Meant to Find is on my TBR for June. Have you read any other Kristoff books? I’ve read the Nevernight series and the Aurora Cycle and loved them, but I’ve not picked up Stormdancer yet as it’s the one that people don’t seem to enjoy as much :S I’ll get to it eventually though.

    Liked by 1 person

  2. omg yessss the ones we’re meant to find is on my tbr since forever!!!! i’m super hyped to read it and is it just me or are all of these covers just so stunning?!~ great post, i loved the recs~

    Liked by 1 person

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