The Last of Us meets The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes in this stand-alone dystopian romance about survival, sacrifice, and love that risks everything.

The Drowning Empire by Andrea Stewart is a completed trilogy consisting of the books: The Bone Shard Daughter, The Bone Shard Emporer and The Bone Shard War and is set in the coastal fantasy world of The Phoenix Empire during the reign of the Sukai Dynasty. Lin is the Emporer’s daughter and for years during her father’s reign she has felt like she has something to prove and with the Emporer’s reign failing and rebellion sweeping across the islands, Lin must do what she can to make her father recognise her as heir to the throne and vows to do so by mastering the forbidden arts of bone shard magic, which only her father knows how to use. However magic like that comes with a cost and the more Lin delves into learning the bone shard magic, the more she learns about her father and the secrets he keeps behind locked doors.

Debut novel by Maithree Wijesekara is set in the Ran Empire, inspired by the Mauryan Dynasty of Ancient India. The story follows the lives of two people experiencing the Ran Empire from different viewpoints.

It’s a new year which means new books and there are plenty of new fantasies that we absolutely can not wait to get our hands on. From debut authors, new series and sequels we have been waiting a thousand years to read, there is plenty to look forward to in the first half of the year.

With every Jennifer Saint book I read, I always feel myself being compelled to keep reading and it was no different with Atalanta. Saint’s writing style is easy to read but also has substance to it and other than the many unpronouncable names that the greeks used, I had no problems flying through this book.

I don’t read a lot of horror books but I do love horror movies, all year round, not just during spooky season. So while I may not have read a ton of horror, here are the ones I would recommend if you loved or enjoyed any of these films.

Cruel is the Light is a debut Young Adult Romantasy by Sophie Clark. The shop was lucky enough to receive an advanced copy from the publishers Penguin Random House. It comes out in hardback on the 23rd of January 2025 and I can not wait for you all to be able to get your hands on this book. This is one of those books that’ll keep you up until 2am reading it.

When I first picked this book up I wasn’t expecting to like it all, in fact I thought this would be a DNF. It ended up being a 5 star read and the book that got me back into reading fantasy!

The Chestnut Springs Series by Elsie Silver is a series of five romance novels set in a fictional western town, on a ranch following the love lives of three brothers and two other characters. Be warned, once you start this series you will not be able to put it down. I binged the whole thing in a week, these books are so easy to read and I was emmersed in the world, the author really knows how to describe a setting and make you feel like you’re there without the book feeling overly descriptive.