Can’t-Wait Wednesday – Sabrina & Corina: Stories by Kali Fajardo-Anstine

Posted in Can't-Wait Wednesday, Memes & Challenges by Alicia @ A Kernel of Nonsense

Can’t-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Tressa @ Wishful Endings where bloggers share which upcoming releases they’re most looking forward to. Join us every Wednesday and watch your TBR list multiply.

I got a taste for short story collections with Carmen Maria Machado’s Her Body and Other Parties and have been itching to pick up more, especially ones by authors of color. I’ve been eyeing N.K. Jemisin’s How Long ’til Black Future Month? and this upcoming release, Sabrina & Corina: Stories by Kali Fajarado-Anstine. Isn’t the cover for this one breathtaking? Cover is linked to Goodreads.

Title: Sabrina & Corina: Stories
Author: Kali Fajardo-Anstine
Series: N/A
Pages: 224
Publisher: One World
Release Date: April 2, 2019

“A haunting debut story collection on friendship, mothers and daughters, and the deep-rooted truths of our homelands, centered on Latinas of indigenous ancestry that shines a new light on the American West.
Kali Fajardo-Anstine’s magnetic story collection breathes life into her Latina characters of indigenous ancestry and the land they inhabit. Set against the remarkable backdrop of Denver, Colorado–a place that is as fierce as it is exquisite–these women navigate the land the way they navigate their lives: with caution, grace, and quiet force.
In ‘Sugar Babies,’ ancestry and heritage are hidden inside the earth but tend to rise during land disputes. “Any Further West” follows a sex worker and her daughter as they leave their ancestral home in southern Colorado only to find a foreign and hostile land in California. In ‘Tomi,’ a woman leaves prison and finds herself in a gentrified city that is a shadow of the one she remembers from her childhood. And in the title story, ‘Sabrina & Corina,’ a Denver family falls into a cycle of violence against women, coming together only through ritual.
Sabrina & Corina is a moving narrative of unrelenting feminine power and an exploration of the universal experiences of abandonment, heritage, and an eternal sense of home.”

Are you participating in Can’t-Wait Wednesday or Waiting on Wednesday? Is this book on your TBR? Be sure to leave a link to your post in the comments and I’ll visit!

Can’t-Wait Wednesday: The Last 8 by Laura Pohl

Posted in Can't-Wait Wednesday, Memes & Challenges by Alicia @ A Kernel of Nonsense

All these amazing sounding debuts by Latinx authors in 2019 are making me so happy. Laura Pohl’s The Last 8 is a science-fiction novel I think I will end up really enjoying. I got approved on NetGalley for this one and am going to be diving into this one tomorrow.

Title: The Last 8
Author: Laura Pohl
Series: The Last 8, #1
Pages: 384
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Release Date: March 5, 2019

“Clover Martinez has always been a survivor, which is the only reason she isn’t among the dead when aliens invade and destroy Earth as she knows it.
When Clover hears an inexplicable radio message, she’s shocked to learn there are other survivors—and that they’re all at the former Area 51. When she arrives, she’s greeted by a band of misfits who call themselves The Last Teenagers on Earth.
Only they aren’t the ragtag group of heroes Clover was expecting. The group seems more interested in hiding than fighting back, and Clover starts to wonder if she was better off alone. But then she finds a hidden spaceship, and she doesn’t know what to believe…or who to trust.”

Are you participating in Can’t-Wait Wednesday or Waiting on Wednesday? Is this book on your TBR? Be sure to leave a link to your post in the comments and I’ll visit!

12Feb2019

Can’t-Wait Wednesday: We Set the Dark on Fire by Tehlor Kay Mejia

Posted in Can't-Wait Wednesday, Memes & Challenges by Alicia @ A Kernel of Nonsense

One of my most anticipated 2019 debuts is Tehlor Kay Mejia’s We Set the Dark on Fire. I am all kinds of excited for this title and have already preordered it. I love that this one tackles immigration issues in a dystopian-type setting and that it will feature a f/f romance. Make sure you add this one to your TBR if you haven’t already!

Title: We Set the Dark on Fire
Author: Tehlor Kay Mejia
Series: We Set the Dark on Fire, #1
Pages: 384
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Release Date: February 26, 2019

“At the Medio School for Girls, distinguished young women are trained for one of two roles in their polarized society. Depending on her specialization, a graduate will one day run a husband’s household or raise his children. Both paths promise a life of comfort and luxury, far from the frequent political uprisings of the lower class.
Daniela Vargas is the school’s top student, but her pedigree is a lie. She must keep the truth hidden or be sent back to the fringes of society.
And school couldn’t prepare her for the difficult choices she must make after graduation, especially when she is asked to spy for a resistance group desperately fighting to bring equality to Medio.
Will Dani cling to the privilege her parents fought to win for her, or will she give up everything she’s strived for in pursuit of a free Medio—and a chance at a forbidden love?”

Are you participating in Can’t-Wait Wednesday or Waiting on Wednesday? Is this book on your TBR? Be sure to leave a link to your post in the comments and I’ll visit!

22Jan2019

Can’t-Wait Wednesday: Courting Darkness by Robin LaFevers

Posted in Can't-Wait Wednesday, Memes & Challenges by Alicia @ A Kernel of Nonsense

Robin LaFever’s wrote one of my all-time favorite fantasy series, His Fair Assassin, about female assassins working from a nunnery. When I found out she was going to be expanding her series with this duology, I was so excited. I’ve missed reading new books from this author and can’t wait to see what she does with Courting Darkness.

Title: Courting Darkness
Author: Robin LaFevers
Series: Courting Darkness Duology, #1
Pages: 352
Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers
Release Date: February 5, 2019

“Death wasn’t the end, it was only the beginning…
Sybella has always been the darkest of Death’s daughters, trained at the convent of Saint Mortain to serve as his justice. But she has a new mission now. In a desperate bid to keep her two youngest sisters safe from the family that nearly destroyed them all, she agrees to accompany the duchess to France, where they quickly find themselves surrounded by enemies. Their one ray of hope is Sybella’s fellow novitiates, disguised and hidden deep in the French court years ago by the convent—provided Sybella can find them.
Genevieve has been undercover for so many years, she struggles to remember who she is or what she’s supposed to be fighting for. Her only solace is a hidden prisoner who appears all but forgotten by his guards. When tragedy strikes, she has no choice but to take matters into her own hands—even if it means ignoring the long awaited orders from the convent.
As Sybella and Gen’s paths draw ever closer, the fate of everything they hold sacred rests on a knife’s edge. Will they find each other in time, or will their worlds collide, destroying everything they care about?”

Are you participating in Can’t-Wait Wednesday or Waiting on Wednesday? Is this book on your TBR? Be sure to leave a link to your post in the comments and I’ll visit!

8Jan2019

Can’t-Wait Wednesday: The Kingdom of Copper by S.A. Chakraborty

Posted in Can't-Wait Wednesday, Memes & Challenges by Alicia @ A Kernel of Nonsense

S.A. Chakraborty’s The City of Brass is one of the most complex fantasy novels I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading. I loved all the characters in the novel and really appreciated Chakraborty’s world where there isn’t necessarily a clear-cut bad side and good side. I’m really looking forward to the second novel in her debut series. Honestly, I’m half in love with this sequel The Kingdom of Copper based on the beautiful cover alone. Cover is linked to Goodreads.

Title: The Kingdom of Copper
Author: S.A. Chakraborty
Series: The Daevabad Trilogy, #2
Pages: 640
Publisher: Harper Voyager
Release Date: January 22, 2019

“Nahri’s life changed forever the moment she accidentally summoned Dara, a formidable, mysterious djinn, during one of her schemes. Whisked from her home in Cairo, she was thrust into the dazzling royal court of Daevabad—and quickly discovered she would need all her grifter instincts to survive there.
Now, with Daevabad entrenched in the dark aftermath of a devastating battle, Nahri must forge a new path for herself. But even as she embraces her heritage and the power it holds, she knows she’s been trapped in a gilded cage, watched by a king who rules from the throne that once belonged to her family—and one misstep will doom her tribe.
Meanwhile, Ali has been exiled for daring to defy his father. Hunted by assassins, adrift on the unforgiving copper sands of his ancestral land, he is forced to rely on the frightening abilities the marid—the unpredictable water spirits—have gifted him. But in doing so, he threatens to unearth a terrible secret his family has long kept buried.
And as a new century approaches and the djinn gather within Daevabad’s towering brass walls for celebrations, a threat brews unseen in the desolate north. It’s a force that would bring a storm of fire straight to the city’s gates . . . and one that seeks the aid of a warrior trapped between worlds, torn between a violent duty he can never escape and a peace he fears he will never deserve.”

Are you participating in Can’t-Wait Wednesday or Waiting on Wednesday? Is this book on your TBR? Be sure to leave a link to your post in the comments and I’ll visit!

4Dec2018

Can’t-Wait Wednesday: The Wicked King by Holly Black

Posted in Can't-Wait Wednesday, Memes & Challenges by Alicia @ A Kernel of Nonsense

Holly Black’s The Cruel Prince was a truly fascinating read. I wasn’t sure if I was going to like it, but the hype ended up being too much for me to resist. I ended up really taking to the protagonist, Jude, and loved that she got to be the bad guy in this twisted world of fairies. I feel like I’ve been counting down the days until The Wicked King‘s release and over Black Friday weekend, I ended up preordering the sequel. Now if only time would move faster.

Title: The Wicked King
Author: Holly Black
Series: The Folk of the Air, #2
Pages: 336
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Release Date: January 8, 2019

“You must be strong enough to strike and strike and strike again without tiring.
The first lesson is to make yourself strong.
After the jaw-dropping revelation that Oak is the heir to Faerie, Jude must keep her younger brother safe. To do so, she has bound the wicked king, Cardan, to her, and made herself the power behind the throne. Navigating the constantly shifting political alliances of Faerie would be difficult enough if Cardan were easy to control. But he does everything in his power to humiliate and undermine her even as his fascination with her remains undiminished.
When it becomes all too clear that someone close to Jude means to betray her, threatening her own life and the lives of everyone she loves, Jude must uncover the traitor and fight her own complicated feelings for Cardan to maintain control as a mortal in a Faerie world.”

Are you participating in Can’t-Wait Wednesday or Waiting on Wednesday? Is this book on your TBR? Be sure to leave a link to your post in the comments and I’ll visit!