It is honestly wild to me that we’re already looking towards 2024, because I feel like the year started yesterday and about a decade ago at the same time, it has truly been an odd year for me to say the least! However, a new year brings new books and I figured I’d write a post to highlight some of the ones I’m really hyped up for even though I may have to seriously consider putting myself on a book buying ban soon… So here are some of the books I’m most excited for in 2024!
Firstly though, on a slightly more serious note, I wanted to share my disappointment as one of my most anticipated releases of the year was literally cancelled due to the author’s horrendous review bombing of their (primarily POC) peers. Crown of Starlight I was looking forward to immensely and had been trying to win an ARC for a long time so I feel really sad that we’re not getting what sounded like a fab book. However, I’m also really glad that it has been taken off of the publishing schedule due to the review bombing, I find it really interesting that publishing has come down so hard on this when they have decidedly not on other situations. I wonder going forward if we’ll see authors step away from social media more and if social media clauses will be included in contracts?
As sad as I am about this situation, it has really highlighted some brilliant books to me that I may not have otherwise heard about. So I thought I’d start off here by sharing a couple of the books by the victims of the review bombing that I’m really excited for!
Voyage of the Damned by Frances White
Releasing: 18th January 2024
Publisher: Penguin
Synopsis
To mark the thousandth year of peace in the Empire of Concordia, the emperor's ship embarks upon a twelve-day voyage. Aboard are the heirs of the twelve provinces of Concordia, each graced with a unique magical ability known as a Blessing.
Except one: Ganymedes Piscero. When a beloved heir is murdered, everyone is a suspect. Stuck at sea and surrounded by powerful people, odds of survival are slim.
But as the bodies pile higher, Ganymedes must become the hero he was not born to be and unmask the killer before he ends up the next victim of their bloody crusade.
The Poisons We Drink by Bethany Baptiste
Releasing: 5th April 2024
Publisher: Sourcebooks, Inc
Synopsis
In a country divided between humans and witchers, Venus Stoneheart hustles as a brewer making illegal love potions to support her family.
Love potions is a dangerous business. Brewing has painful, debilitating side effects, and getting caught means death or a prison sentence. But what Venus is most afraid of is the dark, sentient magic within her.
Then an enemy's iron bullet kills her mother, Venus's life implodes. Keeping her reckless little sister Janus safe is now her responsibility. When the powerful Grand Witcher, the ruthless head of her coven, offers Venus the chance to punish her mother's killer, she has to pay a steep price for revenge. The cost? Brew poisonous potions to enslave D.C.'s most influential politicians.
As Venus crawls deeper into the corrupt underbelly of her city, the line between magic and power blurs, and it's hard to tell who to trust...Herself included.
Moving on to some of the other releases I’m excited for (though I’m sure there will be many more to come as they get more marketing and hype closer to release), starting off with January releases:
Ruthless Vows by Rebecca Ross
Releasing: 4th January 2024
Publisher: Harper Collins
Synopsis
Torn apart by war, reunited by love.
Two weeks have passed since Iris Winnow returned home bruised and heartbroken from the front, but the war is far from over. Roman is missing, and the city of Oath continues to dwell in a state of disbelief and ignorance. When Iris and Attie are given another chance to report on Dacre's movements, they both take the opportunity and head westward once more despite the danger, knowing it's only a matter of time before the conflict reaches a city that's unprepared and fracturing beneath the chancellor's reign.
Since waking below in Dacre's realm, Roman cannot remember his past. But given the reassurance that his memories will return in time, Roman begins to write articles for Dacre, uncertain of his place in the greater scheme of the war. When a strange letter arrives by wardrobe door, Roman is first suspicious, then intrigued. As he strikes up a correspondence with his mysterious pen pal, Roman will soon have to make a decision: to stand with Dacre or betray the god who healed him. And as the days grow darker, inevitably drawing Roman and Iris closer together...the two of them will risk their very hearts and futures to change the tides of the war.
All the Violet Tiaras by Jean Menzies
Releasing: 25th January 2024
Publisher: 404 Ink
Synopsis
For a period in time that gave us Sappho, and the love affair of Achilles and Patroclus, the Ancient Greek relationship with queer folk is a lot more complicated than at first glance. Yet, as ancient historian and author Jean Menzies highlights in this book, ancient Greek myths are being told anew by LGBTQ+ writers and readers to explore modern day queer joy and queer struggles. They are queering the Greek myths. LGBTQ+ writers and readers have reclaimed an ancient and timeless form of storytelling featuring reimaginings of recognisable characters to give voice to a community that has always existed but has not always been able to speak out! All the Violet Tiaras is both an act of rebellion and an act that honours the legacy of these remarkable stories. Together our community has carved out a safe space in the transformed versions of these myths and we are here to stay.
House of Flame and Shadow by Sarah J Maas
Releasing: 30th January 2024
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Synopsis (SPOILERS for first two books!)
Bryce Quinlan never expected to see a world other than Midgard, but now that she has, all she wants is to get back. Everything she loves is in Midgard: her family, her friends, her mate. Stranded in a strange new world, she's going to need all her wits about her to get home again. And that's no easy feat when she has no idea who to trust. Hunt Athalar has found himself in some deep holes in his life, but this one might be the deepest of all.
After a few brief months with everything he ever wanted, he's in the Asteri's dungeons again, stripped of his freedom and without a clue as to Bryce's fate. He's desperate to help her, but until he can escape the Asteri's leash, his hands are quite literally tied.
In this sexy, breathtaking sequel to the #1 bestsellers House of Earth and Blood and House of Sky and Breath, Sarah J. Maas's Crescent City series reaches new heights as Bryce and Hunt's world is brought to the brink of collapse-with its future resting on their shoulders.
February releases:
Empire of the Damned by Jay Kristoff
Releasing: 29th February 2024
Publisher: HarperCollins
Synopsis
Gabriel de Leon has saved the Holy Grail from death, but his chance to end the endless night is lost.
After turning his back on his silversaint brothers once and for all, Gabriel and the Grail set out to learn the truth of how Daysdeath might finally be undone.
But the last silversaint faces peril, within and without. Pursued by children of the Forever King, drawn into wars and webs centuries in the weaving, and ravaged by his own rising bloodlust, Gabriel may not survive to see the truth of the Grail revealed.
A truth that may be too awful for any to imagine.
March releases:
Where Sleeping Girls Lie by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé
Releasing: 14th March 2024
Publisher: Usbourne
Synopsis
Hussein is the new girl at Alfred Nobel Academy, a prestigious mixed boarding school. She's always been home-schooled, and has no idea what to expect when she steps through the doors of her imposing new home.
But she certainly didn't imagine her roommate, Elizabeth, going missing on her first night. Or for people to think Sade had something to do with it.Instead of blending in, suddenly everyone is talking about Sade, including the Unholy Trinity - a group of the most popular girls at the school.
Swept up in their circle, Sade still can't shake the sense that there's more to Elizabeth's disappearance - especially as no one seems to care what's happened to her.And then a student is found dead.
With sinister secrets rising to the surface of Alfred Noble Academy, Sade and her new friends must uncover the truth surrounding Elizabeth's disappearance and bring the culprits to justice...before Sade's own secrets catch up to her.
April releases:
Funny Story by Emily Henry
Releasing: 25th April 2024
Publisher: Penguin
Synopsis
Daphne always loved the way her fiancé Peter told their story. How they met (on a blustery day), fell in love (over an errant hat), and moved back to his lakeside hometown to begin their life together. He really was good at telling it...right up until the moment he realized he was actually in love with his childhood best friend Petra.
Which is how Daphne begins her new story: Stranded in beautiful Waning Bay, Michigan, without friends or family but with a dream job as a children's librarian (that barely pays the bills), and proposing to be roommates with the only person who could possibly understand her predicament: Petra's ex, Miles Nowak.
Scruffy and chaotic-with a penchant for taking solace in the sounds of heart break love ballads -Miles is exactly the opposite of practical, buttoned up Daphne, whose coworkers know so little about her they have a running bet that she's either FBI or in witness protection. The roommates mainly avoid one another, until one day, while drowning their sorrows, they form a tenuous friendship and a plan. If said plan also involves posting deliberately misleading photos of their summer adventures together, well, who could blame them?
But it's all just for show, of course, because there's no way Daphne would actually start her new chapter by falling in love with her ex-fiancé's new fiancée's ex...right?
Summer releases:
A Novel Love Story by Ashley Poston
Releasing: 4th July 2024
Publisher: HQ
Synopsis
Eileen Merriweather loves to get lost in a good happily-ever-after. The fictional kind, anyway. Because at least imaginary men don’t leave you at the altar. She feels safe in a book. At home. Which might be why she’s so set on going her annual book club retreat this year—she needs good friends, cheap wine, and grand romantic gestures—no matter what.
But when her car unexpectedly breaks down on the way, she finds herself stranded in a quaint town that feels like it’s right out of a novel…
Because it is.
This place can’t be real, and yet… she’s here, in Eloraton, the town of her favorite romance series, where the candy store’s honey taffy is always sweet, the local bar’s burgers are always a little burnt, and rain always comes in the afternoon. It feels like home. It’s perfect—and perfectly frozen, trapped in the late author’s last unfinished story.
Elsy is sure that’s why she must be here: to help bring the town to its storybook ending.
Except there is a character in Eloraton that she can’t place—a grumpy bookstore owner with mint-green eyes, an irritatingly sexy mouth and impeccable taste in novels. And he does not want her finishing this book.
Which is a problem because Elsy is beginning to think the town’s happily-ever-after might just be intertwined with her own.
So there are a handful of the books I’m really excited for already coming out in 2024! Some I already have ARCs for thanks to YALC - Voyage of the Damned and Where Sleeping Girls Lie which I really need to get to soon! And some I’m yet to preorder such as Ruthless Vows as I’m waiting for the fairyloot edition to be released to buy it but I am so excited for it as you know I adore Ross’ writing! Have you seen any of these that you’re excited for or are there any I’ve missed that you think I’d love? Let me know!
Happy new year!
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