Top Ten Tuesday – Most Anticipated Releases for 2019 (the first half)
Many thanks to That Artsy Reader Girl for coming up with the Top Ten Tuesday topics! Here’s the full list of topics if you are interested. Today’s (January 8th) topic is: Most Anticipated Releases for 2019 (the first half).
This is my (Mackenzie’s) list, although I do know Shari is also excited for The Gutter Prayer! Also, I don’t know if book covers have just been getting more and more gorgeous over the years but look at all these!! They’re stunning!! Okay on to the good stuff where I actually tell you about the books haha.
1 – The Gutter Prayer by Gareth Hanrahan (release date: January 17th 2019)
From Goodreads: “A group of three young thieves are pulled into a centuries old magical war between ancient beings, mages, and humanity in this wildly original debut epic fantasy.”
Okay even just that sentence has me like, !!! And the three thieves are an orphan, a ghoul, and a cursed man which make it even more interesting. I don’t know a whole lot about it but it’s getting a ton of really great early reviews, and it’s a debut novel!
2 – The Kingdom of Copper by S.A. Chakraborty (release date: January 22nd 2019)
This is the sequel to City of Brass which came out this past year. In City of Brass, a con woman accidentally summons a djinn warrior, and she ends up on a journey to Daevabad, a city with six different djinn tribes and of course, messy politics. The ending!! of City of Brass!! I can’t believe I’ve survived this long waiting for The Kingdom of Copper lol. I love Nahri and Dara and Ali. And it’s very diverse! Has really great Muslim representation. And I love the writing.
3 – King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo (release date: January 29th 2019)
This is the first novel of the ‘Nikolai duology’ – Nikolai is a character from Bardugo’s first series, The Grisha trilogy. I am so excited for this because the Six of Crows duology just blew the Grisha trilogy out of the water in terms of writing, characters, and everything, and I’m really excited to see how her writing has evolved further! The magic system is very cool and I’m excited to be back in Ravka. I would recommend this even if you haven’t read her other books! (But the others are great as well :] )
4 – The Weight of Our Sky by Hanna Alkaf (release date: February 5th 2019)
From Goodreads: “A music loving teen with OCD does everything she can to find her way back to her mother during the historic race riots in 1969 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in this heart-pounding literary debut.”
I’m really interested in reading this because I have very little (read: absolutely no) knowledge about the race riots in Malaysia at this time (honestly American education on history…not great). It’s also a super diverse read! Characters of color, deals with mental illness, etc. Do check the Goodreads page for content warnings though.
5 – Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James (release date: February 5th 2019)
This is about a hunter named Tracker (very apt) who is hired to find a boy who disappeared 3 years earlier. There are others also looking for the boy and he ends up tracking him with a group of characters including a man named Leopard who is a shape-shifter! There journey becomes quite harrowing as they are attacked by people and creatures intent on destroying them.
I believe it’s set in a place very similar to Africa, although with magical elements. I’m really excited to read a fantasy that’s different from the classic western or European inspired stuff!
6 – The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon (release date: February 26th 2019)
“A world divided.
A queendom without an heir.
An ancient enemy awakens.”
A standalone!! And a massive one at that! I love series but sometimes I reeeeeeally hate that wait for the sequel haha.
There are dragons! Badass women! Badass women who are dragon riders! Forbidden magic! And best of all, queendoms! Goodness sorry for all the exclamation points but I am exciiiiiited (to the point where I even ordered the fancy Goldsboro edition already).
7 – The Bird King by G. Willow Wilson (release date: March 12th 2019)
“From award-winning author G. Willow Wilson, The Bird King is an epic journey set during the reign of the last sultan in the Iberian peninsula at the height of the Spanish Inquisition.”
One of the main characters can draw maps of places he’s never been and bend the shape of reality?? AAHHHH sign me UP! Though of course this is viewed as sorcery and a threat to Christian Spanish rule, so he must flee with the help of his friend who is a concubine in the royal court, and a clever jinn. Honestly I just really love magical maps so that alone was pretty much enough to draw me in haha.
The author has also authored the Ms. Marvel comics, which is awesome!
8 – A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine (release date: March 26th 2019)
“A Memory Called Empire is a fast-paced, character-led tale of empire, intrigue and rebellion with a murder at its heart.”
I love a good character driven novel!! And I definitely need to get into more science fiction. My reading has been heavily fantasy but I do love scifi. This one sounds amazing – “Ambassador Mahit Dzmare arrives in the center of the multi-system Teixcalaanli Empire only to discover that her predecessor, the previous ambassador from their small but fiercely independent mining Station, has died. But no one will admit that his death wasn’t an accident–or that Mahit might be next to die, during a time of political instability in the highest echelons of the imperial court.”
9 – Descendant of the Crane by Joan He (release date: April 2nd 2019)
From Goodreads: “Princess Hesina of Yan has always been eager to shirk the responsibilities of the crown, but when her beloved father is murdered, she’s thrust into power, suddenly the queen of an unstable kingdom. Determined to find her father’s killer, Hesina does something desperate: she engages the aid of a soothsayer—a treasonous act, punishable by death… because in Yan, magic was outlawed centuries ago.”
I’ve seen this described as a Chinese-inspired Game of Thrones, and having Chinese heritage myself I am always super excited to read books inspired by the culture! And wow that cover oh my god.
10 – We Hunt the Flame by Hafsah Faizal (release date: May 14th 2019)
“Zafira is the Hunter, disguising herself as a man when she braves the cursed forest of the Arz to feed her people. Nasir is the Prince of Death, assassinating those foolish enough to defy his autocratic father, the king. If Zafira was exposed as a girl, all of her achievements would be rejected; if Nasir displayed his compassion, his father would punish him in the most brutal of ways. “
This is set in a magical world inspired by ancient Arabia – I’m so here for all these 2019 releases bringing us to new lands and bringing us diverse stories!!! Also this just screams enemies-to-lovers trope and that is my weakness.
It’s also amazing to see a fellow book blogger realize their dream of becoming an author!! Major congratulations to Hafsah.
Were any of these already on your list? Did I manage to convince you put any of them on your list? Also let me know what I missed (I already know I missed The Gilded Wolves which also sounds stunning), because obviously there are way more amazing books coming out in 2019 that I didn’t have room for on this list!
THe WEIGHT OF OUR SKY sounds good to me. One good thing about doing this activity, now I am really excited about a few upcoming books. Since I usually don’t pay attention to releases this is a new position for me. Hope you get to read a few of your anticipated books. My Anticipated Releases
I feel the same way! I’m excited to check out other people’s lists to find other new books!
Every year that goes by the covers only get prettier and prettier. *.* Although The Bird King didn’t make my list, I’m very excited about it. The Spanish Inquisition was a terrible time and I want to see how the authors adapts to the story.
Happy Readings! 😉
Tânia @MyLovelySecret
Right?? I just want to display them all on my bookshelf but then I’d run out of room too quickly haha. Excited to check out your list!
TFW Dark Age doesn’t come out until July (supposedly).
rrrrriiiiiippppppp
King Of Scars, Priory and Descendant of The Crane were all on my list this week too!
My TTT: https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2019/01/08/top-ten-tuesday-193/
yay they all sound amazing!
A Memory Called Empire is GOOD! Not new-favorite kind of good, but I liked it a lot! (which surprised me after I realized how political it is but the characters are just really great)
I’m super excited about Priory (mostly because it’s a monster of a book LOL) and Black Leopard, Red Wolf.
Will very likely get The Gutter Prayer too. Just waiting what Shari is going to say about it.
oooo yay! I’m excited to read it then 🙂
hahaha yesss stoked for giant books!
I couldn’t resist already ordering The Gutter Prayer lol. I can’t wait to hear her thoughts either! you two are my go-to for great SFF recs
Well damn, you just made my day ;-;
I have both The Priory of the Orange Tree and A Memory Called Empire on my TTT list as well, great picks!
thank you so much! 🙂
I agree the covers are seriously amazing. 😍 I recently put We Hunt the Flame on my TBR – I’d heard a bit about it already but not looked it up properly (because I’m silly like that). However, I found out that my favourite narrators are doing the audiobook. 😭♥️
I’ve not heard of a couple of these books, so it’s great to read a bit more about them! I’m kind of intrigued by the hype around Priory of the Orange Tree but I wasn’t wowed by The Bone Season, so I’m not sure what I’d think! 🤔
Are you going to do a post for the second half of the year too? 🙊
ooo yes I saw that the audiobook has your favs!! I’m excited for that.
Yeah I’m excited to see how Priory differs from The Bone Season, I’ll let you know!
YES of course I’ll do another post! I might start doing it every 3 months since there are just so many good releases this year hahaha
Looking forward to another post (or two or three!). 🙊
I just recently read the Six of Crows duology and would love to read more of Leigh Bardugo’s work! Here is our Top Ten Tuesday.
I would definitely recommend the Grisha trilogy! You can definitely tell it’s her first series (after reading SoC) but I still like it a lot.
Ahh so many great titles! I’m super curious about Priory… but I’m a bit wary! I thought The Bone Season was okay so I’m planning to wait for more Priory reviews before I decide.
I have Priory of the Orange Tree pre-ordered. Just a note, if you did pre-order the Kindle edition of the book, all the US orders were cancelled a couple of days ago so you have to order again.
I want to start reading the Grisha Verse books so I can read the follow-on books!