Showing posts with label D.L. Taylor. Show all posts
Showing posts with label D.L. Taylor. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 28, 2026

Waiting on Wednesday #768, January 28th

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating!

Trust No One by James Rollins 
Expected Publication: February 24th, 2026
From Goodreads:
From the #1 New York Times bestselling master of international intrigue comes a shocking new stand-alone thriller that thrusts a group of university students, falsely accused of murder, into a treacherous hunt across Europe, all to unlock the secrets buried within a centuries-old book that could change humankind forever.

Knowledge can be magic—until it falls into the wrong hands.

The ritualistic murder of a British professor at the University of Exeter points to a startling cast of  his own students. All are enrolled in a postgraduate program covering the history of witchcraft, folklore, and spiritualism.

All evidence points to Sharyn Karr—an American student. Prior to the professor’s death, he had thrust a centuries-old book upon her. It appears to be the handwritten and encrypted diary of an eighteenth-century mystic and occultist, the Comte de Saint-Germain. The professor begged her to keep the text safe, ending with a warning.

Trust no one.  

Such a responsibility forces her into cooperation with Duncan Maxwell, a fellow postgrad and the sixteenth in line to the British Crown. Already, Duncan has proven himself a savant with encryptions. Unfortunately, the pair clash at every level, but they both need one another. Especially when they discover the book’s opening   Herein lies the secret to my immortality. Come find me, if you dare.

As dark forces close upon the pair, she and her friends are forced to flee, pursued by law enforcement and hunted by a powerful cabal. In an explosive chase across Europe—from the Tower of London to Parisian chateaus to a fortress in the Italian Alps—Sharyn must learn the true secret hidden in Saint-Germain’s text. It will send her and the others across history and deep into the heart of one of the world’s greatest mysteries, a secret buried at the roots of Western Civilization, a discovery that could topple empires and change humanity forever.

For what lies at the end of Saint-Germain’s diary is as shocking as its opening words.

The Girls Before by Kate Alice Marshall
Expected Publication: February 24th, 2026
From Goodreads:
From the bestselling author of What Lies in the Woods, No One Can Know, and A Killing Cold, a new novel about a search & rescue expert, a kidnapped woman, and the lost girls who haunt them both.

There is a girl in a basement.
The door has stopped opening.
The light is gone.

Stranger is trapped in the dark, with only her imagination and the scribbles on the wall left by long-dead girls to keep her company. Nearly out of food and water, she makes one last attempt to escape. But if the door opens at last, will it mean salvation, or only the beginning of her fight to survive?

Audrey is a search and rescue expert who never stopped looking for her best friend, Janie, who disappeared when they were teenagers. Janie used to love the local legend of a forest witch who saves girls from bad men, but Audrey knows now that for every one saved, there's always another one lost.

When she stumbles upon evidence in the forest that a teenage runaway might have actually been kidnapped from land belonging to the town's most prominent family, she must dig through decades of secrets to reveal the biggest one of what happened to the girls before?

A Rose of Blood and Binding by Claire Legrand
Expected Publication: February 24th, 2026
From Goodreads:
New York Times bestselling author of Furyborn, Claire Legrand, delights in this thrilling conclusion to the steamy, lush, and epic Middlemist trilogy, perfect for fans of Bridgerton and A Court of Thorns and Roses.

WAR IS RAGING IN EDYN.

The battered Middlemist can barely hold itself together. Olden monsters terrorize the land. The gods are awakening from their ancient slumber, but if the vengeful Kilraith destroys them, all will be lost. And it's up to the Ashbourne sisters—demigods, daughters of the goddess Kerezen—to stop him.

But the sisters are spread thin. Gemma and Talan travel the world in a desperate search for the gods. In the capital, Farrin and Ryder shelter countless refugees amid roiling unrest. And Mara Ashbourne, bound to the Middlemist and longing for a home she can never return to, is just trying to survive.

Every day is chaos as Mara battles invaders and fights to protect her fellow Roses. The presence of librarian Gareth Fontaine—assigned to aid the Roses' war efforts—doesn't help. Charming, brilliant, far too confident, and annoyingly reverent of the Roses—Mara most of all—he's a distraction Mara can't avoid or afford. Especially since she can see the shadows of Mhorghast brimming underneath his dazzling smile. Shadows of violence and shame that she knows all too well. Shadows that terrify her more than any monster.

As Mara and Gareth search the Old Country for Kilraith's final three curse-anchors, a slow-burning passion born of sorrow and solace sparks between them, one that could finally bring Mara to the very home she longs for…or drive her toward the dark fate she secretly craves, and bring both worlds crashing down alongside her.

Amari and the Metalwork Menace by B.B. Alston
Expected Publication: February 24th, 2026
From Goodreads:
The gripping fourth book in the #1 New York Times bestselling Supernatural Investigations series that began with Amari and the Night Brothers! 

Perfect for fans of Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, and Nevermoor.

In the wake of the extreme losses to the Bureau during the war with Dylan Van Helsing and the magicians, Amari has stepped back from being a Junior Agent to spend the school year as a normal kid. But as she prepares to graduate eighth grade, she's faced with a Return to the Bureau and join the elite new Junior Special Agent Program, or retire for good—which would mean safety, but also losing her memories of the supernatural world.

But soon she finds that she may not have a choice. A deadly new curse is threatening both the supernatural and mortal worlds as, beneath their skin, people are slowly becoming machines—and losing their very humanity. And it's somehow related to the First Magician.

Hundreds of cases have been cropping up, with no cure in sight. And when the curse hits someone close to Amari, it's up to her to get to the bottom of this deadly mystery—even if it means trusting an old enemy.

The Beasts We Raise by D.L Taylor
Expected Publication: February 24th, 2026
From Goodreads:
"Full of compelling twists and high-stakes magic . . . a captivating romantic fantasy that had me rooting for the protagonists from the very [beginning]." —Kelly Andrew, New York Times-bestselling author of Your Blood, My Bones on The Beasts We Bury

Marry her enemy. Save her realm. Forsake her heart. The heart-shattering conclusion to this dark fantasy duology is perfect for fans of Adrienne Young, Tricia Levenseller, and Brigid Kemmerer.

Newly-appointed Prime Mancella is desperate to keep the peace within her realm and within herself. Having recently acquired the power to physically split into separate versions of herself, her identity is beginning to fracture—along with her land, which is on the brink of war. The only semblance of normalcy in her life is her budding romance with thief-turned-confidant, Silver. . . at least until the mysterious Prime Reltas arrives at her doorstep asking, or rather demanding, her hand in marriage.

If Mance wants to avoid a fight that will devastate her realm, she’ll have to consider the proposal. Even if it destroys Silver. But Mance isn't ready to give up just yet. Desperate to free herself from the betrothal, Mance must seek allyship from other Primes and learn to control her new magic. If she fails, her decision to refuse Reltas's proposal will implode the delicate state of affairs across the realms, setting off a catastrophic war—and shatter two hearts in the process.

Cleopatra by Saara El-Arifi
Expected Publication: February 24th, 2026
From Goodreads:
YOU KNOW MY NAME, BUT YOU DO NOT KNOW ME.

Your historians call me seductress, but I was ever in love's thrall.

Your playwrights speak of witchcraft, but my talents came from the gods themselves.

Your poets sing of my bloodlust, but I was always protecting my children.

How wilfully they refuse to concede that a woman could be powerful, strategic, and divinely blessed to rule.

Death will silence me no longer.

This is not the story of how I died. But how I lived.

There's a bunch of great books coming out at the end of February, I love these authors and I can't wait to read them all! What about you guys? Happy reading! 

Saturday, December 21, 2024

Week 51 Review: The Beasts We Bury

From Goodreads:
Deceit and betrayal abound in this dark YA romantasy about an heir to the throne who can summon an army of animals and a thief who plans to manipulate her to pull off a once-in-a-lifetime heist.

Will he steal her heart or her chance at the throne?

Daughter and heir to the throne, Mancella Cliff yearns for a life without bloodshed. But as a child, she emerged from the Broken Citadel with the power to summon animals—only after killing them with her bare hands. Her magic is a constant reminder of the horrors her father, the ruler of the realm, has forced upon her to strengthen their power.

Silver is a charming thief struggling to survive in a world torn apart by Mancella's father's reign. When a mysterious benefactor recruits him for the heist of a lifetime, a chance to rob the castle, Silver relishes the opportunity for a real future—and revenge. But he'll have to manipulate Mance and earn her trust to pull it off.

As the deception and carnage mount, Mance must find a way to save her realm without becoming the ruthless monster she's been bred to be. And when Silver discovers that his actions are fueling the violence that Mance wants to prevent, he'll have to choose between his ambition and the girl he's falling for.

My Review:
Reading this book was so fantastic! I loved the premise, the characters were wonderful, and I had such a great time reading this story! Mancella and Silver were both great to read about, and I loved how their stories came together! 

That Mancella is the heir to the throne, her life should be perfect, but the cost of her power, to have all creatures in her head, there because she had to kill them? That her father put her up to it, and keeps having her acquire more and more animals, yeah, that's hard to deal with. Especially when her father is the ruler, thats a double set of expectations set on her.

Then there's Silver, whose parents died and he was raised in part by a pretty horrific palace-controlled school. He had basically nothing, and until this benefactor comes along, no real chances of making a better life for himself. I loved their interactions, and as their relationship developed, their romance! That it was complicated by their positions, and the deteriorating relationships between the realms, just made me root for them more! 

Oh, but that ending? That was so surprising, and so well done! All the twists and turns, and how it worked out, yeah, amazing to read! And then there was that final chapter, and that final reveal, and oh, that hurt! I need to know what's going to come of it!

Loved reading this book and I can't wait to continue on with this series! 

Author: D.L. Taylor 
Series: The Broken Citadel #1
Read: December 19th, 2024 
Source: NetGalley 
Reason Why: Sounded really good, and it's a DAC Book, Prequel & Sequel Challenge 2024 Book and a WoW Book! 
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Expected Publication: February 4th 2025 
5/5 Hearts
5/5 Books
5/5 Stars