This stack of covers isn’t so much pretty as it is evocative. The Barker & Llewelyn covers do an excellent job of invoking the time and place and projecting the sense of dark mystery, the London Ladies’ Murder Club covers pretty much scream the 1920s while the cover of Paladin’s Faith fits right in with the rest of the Saint of Steel series.

Speaking of Paladin’s Faith, that’s the book in this stack that I’m MOST looking forward to. I’m planning to treat myself with it over the holidays.

For Review:
A Body on the Doorstep (London Ladies’ Murder Club #1) by Marty Wingate
A Body at the Séance (London Ladies’ Murder Club #2) by Marty Wingate
Ghosts of Honolulu by Mark Harmon and Leon Carroll, Jr. (audio)
Lore of the Wilds by Analeigh Sbrana

Purchased from Amazon/Audible/Etc.:
Blood is Blood (Barker & Llewelyn #10) by Will Thomas
Hell Bay (Barker & Llewelyn #8) by Will Thomas
Old Scores (Barker & Llewelyn #9) by Will Thomas
Paladin’s Faith (Saint of Steel #4) by T. Kingfisher
Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor (audio)

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Not a lot of review copies in this stack, but I’ve clearly given in, or leaned in, or both, to my love of the Barker & Llewelyn series and am in the process of collecting the ones I don’t have eARCs of, which is unfortunately most of them. So there’s that. The prettiest cover ‘award’ certainly goes to A Botanist’s Guide to Society and Secrets, but all the covers in that series have been pretty – even if the plants and flowers pictured thereon are of the deadly and poisonous variety.

Normal Women is a book that made my curiosity bump itch, because we all have ideas and beliefs about exactly what roles average, “normal” women played in history, and I’m hoping to learn something of how much of that popular opinion is remotely correct. We’ll see.

For Review:
A Botanist’s Guide to Society and Secrets (Saffron Everleigh #3) by Kate Khavari
The Hero She Needs (Unbroken Heroes #1) by Anna Hackett
Normal Women by Philippa Gregory

Purchased from Amazon/Audible/Etc.:
The Black Hand (Barker & Llewellyn #5) by Will Thomas
Fatal Enquiry (Barker & Llewellyn #6) by Will Thomas
The Hellfire Conspiracy (Barker & Llewellyn #4) by Will Thomas
The Limehouse Text (Barker & Llewellyn #3) by Will Thomas
Murder Your Employer by Rupert Holmes

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First and most definitely foremost, I hope that everyone had a GREAT turkey day, whether there was turkey on the menu or not!

For a work week that was only THREE days long, a surprising amount of stuff showed up on Edelweiss and NetGalley. Which I am, of course, VERY thankful for!

After absolutely LOVING the first book in the Barker & Llewelyn series, Some Danger Involved, earlier this week, of course I bought the next book in the series! But the book I’m also really looking forward to in this stack is Murder at the White Palace, the 6th book in the Sparks & Bainbridge historical mystery series. That series has been terrific from the very first book, The Right Sort of Man, so I’m eager to see what happens to our intrepid duo next.

The book I’m most curious about is Pets and the City. It’s nonfiction, the autobiographical account of a vet who makes house calls in Manhattan – as the full title clearly states. I’m curious because this is not the first book that I’ve seen telling that story. Dr. Louis J. Camuti wrote his tales of calling on tails and fins and fangs in Manhattan back in 1980 under the hilariously true title of All My Patients Are Under the Bed. I remember those tales and those patients very fondly, and still have a copy of the book – assuming the cats haven’t either chewed it to scrap or peed on it somewhere along the way. But all of that means I’m really curious to see how much as changed and how much remains the same. For example, I wouldn’t be at all surprised to learn that all of Dr. Attas’ patients are ALSO under the bed!

For Review:
The Emperor and the Endless Palace by Justinian Huang
Fathomfolk (Drowned World #1) by Eliza Chan
Foul Days (Witch’s Compendium of Monsters #1) by Genoveva Dimova
In Our Stars (Doomed Earth #1) by Jack Campbell
Murder at the White Palace (Sparks & Bainbridge #6) by Allison Montclair
Pets and the City: True Tales of a Manhattan House Call Veterinarian by Amy Attas
Same Bed Different Dreams by Ed Park (audio)
A True Account by Katherine Howe (audio)

Purchased from Amazon/Audible/Etc.:
To Kingdom Come (Barker & Llewelyn #2) by Will Thomas

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For a not very tall stack it has a lot of fascinating books in it!

The prettiest cover is a dead heat between The Fallen Fruit and The Spellshop. The hands-down best, I’m picking this book for its title award goes to How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying. That title is hard to beat on a whole bunch of fronts – unless, of course, one actually succeeds in becoming the Dark Lord and doesn’t die trying. We’ll see.

I’ve been stalking NetGalley in the hopes that my request for the audio of We Are the Crisis would get approved – and it finally did. I started it immediately and am just as immersed as I was in the first book, No Gods, No Monsters. I can see a lot of solitaire in my future so that I can listen to it faster.

This coming Thursday is Thanksgiving, which means that the holiday season will officially commence. I don’t know about you, but the holidays have certainly snuck up on me this year. I’m definitely looking forward to a lot of extra reading opportunities in the weeks ahead.

For Review:
The Fallen Fruit by Shawntelle Madison
How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying by Django Wexler
The Queen of Poisons (Marlow Murder Club #3) by Robert Thorogood
Rakesfall by Vajra Chandrasekera
The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain by Sofia Samatar
Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky
The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst
Sunbringer (Fallen Gods #2) by Hannah Kaner
We Are the Crisis (Convergence Saga #2) by Cadwell Turnbull (audio)

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Today is Veterans Day in the U.S., and Remembrance Day in the U.K. and much of the British Commonwealth. This holiday, which recognizes the service of all military veterans, was first celebrated as Armistice Day to commemorate the end of World War I at the “eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month” of 1918. A conflict which unfortunately did not turn out to be “war to end all wars.”

Speaking of books, because that’s most of what we do here at Reading Reality. this is another short stack that got embiggened a bit because the original few looked so lonely. I’m also “auditioning” a couple of series as possible comfort reads as I’m just about caught up with Wrexford & Sloane.

I’ve heard good things about the Barker & Llewelyn series, I have a few in eARCs and they’re Victorian, so more Holmes’ era than either Wrexford & Sloane or Sebastian St. Cyr. So we’ll see. I’m also looking back at Barbara Hambly’s Benjamin January series, set in the 1830s in New Orleans and thereabouts. I read the first, it looks like ten, books in the series, beginning with A Free Man of Color (which describes Benjamin January’s situation rather succinctly if not completely) back when they first came out, but it fell by the reading wayside in that torrent of ‘so many books, so little time’. But my memory says the series is absolutely worth picking up again, so I’ll have to see if that memory is playing me true or false in the months ahead.

For Review:
The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman
Death and Glory (Barker & Llewelyn #15) by Will Thomas
Maude Horton’s Glorious Revenge by Lizzie Pook
The Nubian’s Curse (Benjamin January #20) by Barbara Hambly

Purchased from Amazon/Audible/Etc.:
The Pride of Garnet Run (Garnet Run #2.5) by Roan Parrish
Some Danger Involved (Barker & Llewelyn #1) by Will Thomas
A Witch in Time by Constance Sayers

Borrowed from the Library:
The Lights on Knockbridge Lane (Garnet Run #3) by Roan Parrish
The Rivals of Casper Road (Garnet Run #4) by Roan Parrish

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This stack is EXACTLY what happens when the pickings get slim over at Edelweiss and NetGalley. The few books I pick up from them on a week like this look so LONELY in the stack that I start combing through friends’ recommendations and get more books.

With ‘falling back’ to go back to Standard Time this week, I’ll get an hour more to read tonight. C’est la reading vie!

For Review:
The Fireborne Blade by Charlotte Bond
The Last Note of Warning (Nightingale Mysteries #3) by Katharine Schellman

Purchased from Amazon/Audible/Etc.:
A Coup of Tea (Tea Princess Chronicles #1) by Casey Blair
Deep Roots (Siobhan O’Brien #2) by Sung J. Woo
Mirabile by Janet Kagan
Royal Tea Service (Tea Princess Chronicles #3) by Casey Blair
Skin Deep (Siobhan O’Brien #1) by Sung J. Woo
Tea Set and Match (Tea Princess Chronicles #2) by Casey Blair

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You can tell that winter is coming on by the size – or the lack thereof – of this stack. Not much is published in November, December and even January, so not much shows up on NetGalley and Edelweiss in the months preceding. Except for Spring! books, which have already begun. I always think I’m going to catch up a bit in November and December, at least as far as making a bit of a reduction in the size of the virtually towering TBR pile – but it never happens. So many books, so little time!

For Review:
The Autobiography of Benjamin Sisko by Derek Tyler Attico
Relics of Ruin (Books of the Usurper #2) by Erin M. Evans
Remedial Magic (Course in Magic #1) by Melissa Marr
Rogue Sequence by Zac Topping
What Feasts at Night (Sworn Soldier #2) by T. Kingfisher

Borrowed from the Library:
Making it So by Patrick Stewart

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There’s a book in this stack that I’ve been waiting for, it feels like, forever. That’s Valdemar by Mercedes Lackey. I got back into Valdemar with the publication of the first book in the Founding of Valdemar series, Beyond, and I’ve been itching to learn how things got to be the way they are in Arrows of the Queen ever since. This particular book was announced earlier this year and I’ve been pretty much begging for an eARC ever since. It’s finally arrived so reading this looks to be my holiday present to myself. Possibly literally as the book will be published at the end of December.

There’s one book here that, while I didn’t pick it for the title, the title certainly put it over the top. That would be The Dead Cat Tail Assassins. I adored the author’s A Master of Djinn, and his entire Dead Djinn Universe so I’ve been eagerly anticipating whatever he wrote next. This is next, so I’d be reading it anyway, but with that title I absolutely can’t resist, especially as it seems clear from the blurbs that no cats died in the making of these assassins. People, however, are not nearly so sacrosanct.

Last but not least, two books in series that I always eagerly anticipate, The Brides of High Hill, the next book in Nghi Vo’s awesome Singing Hills Cycle, and Lost Birds, the new book in Anne Hillerman’s (continuation, extension, OMG thanks for letting us continue following these characters) Leaphorn, Chee and Manuelito series.

For Review:
Black Shield Maiden by Willow Smith and Jess Hendel
The Brides of High Hill (Singing Hills Cycle #5) by Nghi Vo
The Dead Cat Tail Assassins by P. Djèlí Clark
Locked in Pursuit (Electra McDonnell #4) by Ashley Weaver
Lost Ark Dreaming by Suyi Davies Okungbowa
Lost Birds (Leaphorn, Chee & Manuelito #27) by Anne Hillerman
A Power Unbound (Last Binding #3) by Freya Marske (audio)
The Silverblood Promise (Last Legacy #1) by James Logan
Valdemar (Founding of Valdemar #3) by Mercedes Lackey

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It’s beginning to look a lot like the stacks are getting smaller as the holiday season comes upon us. That may seem like a bit of a non-sequitur but it really isn’t. There just isn’t a lot published in November and December because of the holidays, so most of the books in this stack that are forthcoming aren’t coming until next year. Although I picked up the two Shady Hollow books specifically because they ARE holiday books.

Then there’s the book in this stack that I’ve been looking forward to for MONTHS. Of course I’m talking about The Lantern’s Dance by Laurie R. King. I got hooked on the Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes series way back when the first book in the series, The Beekeeper’s Apprentice, came out. I remember thinking at the time that it was really good if you could just manage to swallow the almost unbelievable premise. Which I did and it was and absolutely still is and the hook clearly is just not letting go.

For Review:
The Holy Terrors by Simon R. Green
Keep (Fury Brothers #2) by Anna Hackett
Lake of Souls by Ann Leckie
The Lantern’s Dance (Mary Russell & Sherlock Holmes #18) by Laurie R. King
The Mars House by Natasha Pulley
Space Holes: First Transmission (Space Holes #1) by B.R. Louis
These Fragile Graces, This Fugitive Heart by Izzy Wasserstein
Those Beyond the Wall by Micaiah Johnson

Purchased from Amazon/Audible/Etc.:
Evergreen Chase (Shady Hollow #3.5) by Juneau Black
Phantom Pond (Shady Hollow #4.5) by Juneau Black

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This week’s stack is short but very, very sweetly anticipated. Court of Wanderers and The Twilight Queen are both second books in series that I hoped really hard would be series but couldn’t be certain until just this week when these two books popped up on NetGalley and Edelweiss.

And then there’s What Cannot Be Said, the 19th book in my much-loved Sebastian St. Cyr series. I’m so happy to have this one, and so tempted to just READ IT NOW, but then I’ll have an even longer wait for book 20. I’m on the horns of a very sharp dilemma over this one.

And last but not least, today is the last day of Banned Books Week. A host of organizations that support writers and artists, including the Writers Guild Initiative, PEN America and Unite Against Book Bans, have banded together to make today 2023 Banned Books Week Day of Action to bring attention to the urgent crisis around book banning in the United States. The American Library Association has declared today to be Let Freedom Read Day. My own small action to support both of those efforts is my purchase of the audiobook of the much praised but frequently banned The 1619 Project, so that I can listen to it in time to review it as part of 2024’s Banned Books Week.

For Review:
Court of Wanderers (Silver Under Nightfall #2) by Rin Chupeco
A Duke’s Lesson in Charm (Gentlemen Authors #3) by Sophie Barnes
Floating Hotel by Grace Curtis
The Murder of Mr. Ma by John Shen Yen Nee and SJ Rozan
The Twilight Queen (King’s Fool #2) by Jeri Westerson
What Cannot Be Said (Sebastian St. Cyr #19) by C.S. Harris

Purchased from Amazon/Audible/Etc.:
The 1619 Project by Nikole Hannah-Jones (audio)
Pets in Space 8 edited by Carol Van Natta

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