Information About the Book Title: Lucha of the Night Forest Author: Tehlor Kay Mejia Release Date: 21st March 2023 Publisher: Random House Inc Genre: YA
Blurb
An edge-of-your-seat fantasy about a girl who will do anything to protect her sister–even if it means striking a dangerous bargain. Dark forces, forgotten magic, and a heart-stopping queer romance make this young adult novel a must-read.
A scorned god. A mysterious acolyte. A forgetting drug. A dangerous forest. One girl caught between the freedom she always wanted and a sister she can’t bear to leave behind. Under the cover of the Night Forest, will Lucha be able to step into her own power…or will she be consumed by it?
This gorgeous and fast-paced fantasy novel from acclaimed author Tehlor Kay Mejia is brimming with adventure, peril, romance, and family bonds–and asks what it means for a teen girl to become fully herself.
Feeling so excited for a new day ahead, Ellie-May struggles to sleep. So when her toy dragon, Ben grows into a real-life dragon, they take to the starry skies and embark on a night-time adventure together, where they visit Ben’s castle and enjoy a dragon party.
But as the sun begins to rise and the stars fade, will Ellie-May be able to stay awake?
2110 Earth is suffering major resource shortages, and the impact of climate change is peaking, with much of the planet’s equatorial regions turned to lifeless desert and populations displaced. Colonies have been established on Mars and the Moon, but these cannot hope to sustain any more than a scant population of hundreds of citizens.
Attention has turned to the need to discover an extra-solar colony world. European scientists, using discoveries made at CERN, have identified the means of creating a wormhole in the space-time continuum, which would allow interstellar travel. However, to do so they must first physically transport one end of the wormhole to where they want it to be, so setting up a wormhole will always rely on physical travel first of all.
A ship is sent to Mu Arae, earth-like planet discovered 10 years before. It is a journey that will take 80 years, the crew, who will eventually set up the wormhole on the planet, kept in suspended animation. But only a few years into the trip, catastrophe strikes and the ship blows up en route, killing all aboard.
2190 Eighty years after the starship set out.
Gordon Kemp is a detective working in the cold case department in London. Usually he works on cases closed ten, twenty-five years earlier. Now, however, he has been assigned a murder investigation closed, unsolved, over eighty years ago. What he unearths will change history and threatens everything we know about what the powers that be have planned for Earth.
The tragedy that befell the ship 80 years before is not what it seems and the past and the present are radically different to what everyone on Earth believes.
We made the journey. Why has it been kept a secret?
Author Bios
ERIC BROWN – Eric Brown is the BSFA award-winning author of more than 20 novels and as many novellas. He has had many short stories published in Interzone magazine and was, for many years, the SF and Fantasy reviewer for The Guardian
KEITH BROOKE – Keith Brooke is the Philip K. Dick award shortlisted author of more than a dozen novels for adults and teenagers. He was the editor for Infinity Plus magazine and has written non-fiction on the SF genre for Palgrave Macmillan.
PUBLICATION DATE: 16 FEBRUARY 2023 PAPERBACK ORIGINAL | £9.99 | ORENDA BOOKS
Blurb
The shocking murder of a heavily pregnant woman throws the New Zealand city of Dunedin into a tailspin, and the devastating crime feels uncomfortably close to home for Detective Sam Shephard as she counts down the days to her own maternity leave.
Confined to a desk job in the department, Sam must find the missing link between this brutal crime and a string of cases involving mothers and children in the past. As the pieces start to come together and the realisation dawns that the killer’s actions are escalating, drastic measures must be taken to prevent more tragedy.
For Sam, the case becomes personal, when it becomes increasingly clear that she is no longer safe, and the clock is ticking…
Second chunky new fantasy in two days, I’m spoiling you all!
THE JAGUAR PATH │16 FEBRUARY 2023│ HB │ EB │EA Anna Stephens
Book Two of the new epic fantasy trilogy by the acclaimed author of GODBLIND.
The Empire of Songs reigns supreme. Across all the lands of Ixachipan, its hypnotic, magical music sounds. Those who battled against the Empire have been enslaved and dispersed, taken far from their friends and their homes.
In the Singing City, Xessa must fight for the entertainment of her captors. Lilla and thousands of warriors are trained to serve as weapons for their enemies. And Tayan is trapped at the heart of the Empire’s power and magic, where the ruthless Enet’s ambition is ever growing.
Each of them harbours a secret hope, waiting for a chance to strike at the Empire from within.
But first they must overcome their own desires. Power can seduce as well as crush. And, in exchange for their loyalty, the Empire promises much.
Once, Lan had a different name. Now, she goes by the one the Elantian colonizers gave her when they invaded her kingdom, killed her mother, and outlawed her people’s magic. She spends her nights as a songgirl in Haak’gong, a city transformed by the conquerors, and spends her days scavenging for remnants of the past. For anything that might help her understand the strange mark burned into her arm by her mother, in her last act before she died.
No one can see the mysterious mark, an untranslatable Hin character, except Lan. Until the night a boy appears at the teahouse and saves her life.
Zen is a practitioner – one of the fabled magicians of the Last Kingdom, whose abilities were rumoured to be drawn from the demons they communed with. Magic believed to be long lost. Magic to be hidden from the Elantians at all costs.
Both Lan and Zen have secrets buried deep within. Fate has connected them, but their destiny remains unwritten. Both hold the power to liberate their land. And both hold the power to destroy the world.
A collection of inspiring, funny, dark, mysterious, tragic, romantic, dramatic, upbeat and fantastical short stories. These 24 stories are written by a variety of authors, with the aim to inspire readers with positive visions of what a sustainable society might look like and how we might get there.
The stories are diverse in style, ranging from whodunnits to sci-fi, romance to family drama, comedy to tragedy, and cover a range of solution types from high-tech to nature-based solutions, to more systemic aspects relating to our culture and political economy.
Information about the Book Title: Out of the Blue Author: Robert Tregoning Illustrator: Stef Murphy Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Release Date: 2nd February 2023 Genre: Picture Book
Blurb
ONLY BLUE ALLOWED, by Blue government demand. Anything that isn’t blue, by colour law, is banned.
In a very blue house on a very blue street, sits a little boy who feels as blue as the world around him. For this little boy has a BIG secret: he loves the colour yellow.
In a world where only one colour is allowed, will he be brave enough to tell his dad? And will they be able to defy the rules and create a world where EVERY colour is welcome?
One boy and his dad are about to come OUT OF THE BLUE and into life in technicolour!
A stunning celebration of being yourself and living in ALL the colours of the rainbow, from debut author Robert Tregoning and rising star illustrator Stef Murphy. Championing difference, diversity and pride, this gloriously illustrated picture book is perfect for fans of Perfectly Norman, Grandad’s Camper and Julian Is a Mermaid.
The third in the series featuring Hella Mauzer, to follow on the success of Evil Things and Deep as Death. A Nordic Noir of the first-order set in Helsinki in 1953. A dark political thriller at the heart of the Cold War; a novel about ruthless ambition and betrayal, but also about the challenges of being a single professional woman in post-war Europe.
Helsinki, June 1953, at the heart of the Cold War. Hella, now a reluctant private investigator, has been asked by her former boss at the Helsinki murder squad to do a background check on a member of the Finnish secret services. Not the type of job Hella was hoping for, but she accepts it on the condition that she is given access to the files concerning the roadside death of her father in 1942, at a time when Finland joined forces with Nazi Germany in its attack against the Soviet Union. German troops were sent to Finland, the Gestapo arrived in Helsinki and German influence on local government was strong, including demands for the deportation of local Jews.
Colonel Mauzer, his wife and other family members were killed by a truck in a hit and run incident. An accident, file closed, they said. But not for Hella, whose unwelcome investigation leads to some who would prefer to see her stopped dead in her tracks.
When Mala the Koala stomps into the forest, feeling very crummy, a little mouse suggests Mala will soon feel better if she starts to be kind. But how? wonders Mala. Soon she’s sharing her lunch with some emu chicks, helping a baby bat and comforting her friend, Wombat – discovering, on her way, that kindness really is what makes the world go round. This easy-to-read rhyming story, with gentle humour and gorgeous artwork, is a perfect introduction to kindness.
Everything Is Better With Dragons 