It’s only been two months since my last book haul, which is an unusually short amount of time for me, but I’ve been shopping for books a lot more often than usual, so I’ve already accumulated eight books. If I let myself get too many more before doing a haul, the post is going to be really long, so I figured I should go ahead and do one now.
I’m excited to talk about the books, so let’s get started!
The Blinding Knife by Brent Weeks
The Blinding Knife is book two in the Lightbringer series, which is an epic fantasy series whose first book was The Black Prism. I read The Black Prism back in February and enjoyed it, but I wasn’t able to continue on with the series because I didn’t have the other books. Now I finally have book two and I can jump into it soon.
I can’t say much about this book, obviously, since it’s a sequel, but I can talk a little about the world and the first book. In this world, people have the ability to use different colors of light to create something called luxin. Different colors of luxin have different properties, and most of the magic-users, called drafters, are only able to use one color. Rarer are people who are able to draft two colors, and rarest are people who can draft more than two. In addition to these groups, there is also one drafter born each generation who is known as the Prism, and that person is able to use all of the colors. The Prism is a spiritual leader and figurehead, but they don’t have much political power. In the first book, we’re following the current Prism, who is a man named Gavin Guile, and a young boy from a small town named Kip.
American Royals by Katharine McGee
The premise of this book is that instead of becoming a republic after the Revolutionary War, the United States adopted a monarchy system, and George Washington was the first king. Now, centuries later, his descendants are still on the throne. That’s pretty much all I know about the book, but I’ve heard that it’s good, and the concept sounds really cool, so I’m hoping I can get to it sometime soon! (She says, even though she literally hasn’t read a book in weeks.)
Kingdom of Souls by Rena Barron
This is a YA fantasy heavily inspired by African culture and written by a Black author. It follows a girl named Arrah, who comes from a family of witchdoctors, but as hard as she tries, she is unable to use magic herself. As a last resort, she makes a dangerous trade: years of her life for scraps of magic. Then, the kingdom’s children begin to disappear, and in her quest to find out why, Arrah discovers a terrible truth. A long-imprisoned Demon King is stirring, and in order to stop him, Arrah will have to pay a terrible price.
This book sounds amazing and dark and I really want to read it.
Slay by Brittney Morris
Slay follows Kiera Johnson, an honors student and the secret creator of SLAY, an online multiplayer role-playing card game for Black gamers. When a kid in Kansas City is killed because of a dispute over the game, knowledge of this secret game spreads into the mainstream media, and SLAY is accused of being racist and exclusionist. Kiera has to find a way to save the game she loves because it’s the only place where she feels that she can truly be herself.
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
This is the description of this book according to the flap:
“The Vignes sisters will always be identical. But after growing up together in a small, southern black community and running away at age sixteen, it’s not just the shape of their lives that is different as adults, it’s everything, including their racial identities. Many years later, one sister lives with her black daughter in the same southern town she once tried to escape. Across the country, the other secretly passes for white, and her white husband knows nothing of her past. Still, although separated by so many miles and just as many lies, the fates of the twins remains intertwined. What will happen when their own daughters’ story lines intersect?”
The cover of this book is one of the most beautiful book covers I’ve ever seen, and I’m hoping the story inside will be just as great. I’m super excited to get to this one!
Assassin’s Apprentice by Robin Hobb
This is the first book (I hope) in a trilogy that is the first in a long line of companion series set in this world. I’m reasonably certain that this is the book you’re supposed to start with, but feel free to correct me in the comments below if I’m wrong.
Anyway, this book follows a boy named Fitz as he trains to become an assassin. There’s political intrigue and drama, and most people seem to really like this series, so I’m hopeful. After all, who doesn’t love a good assassin story?
Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor
Akata Witch is a book I’ve been meaning to get my hands on for a long time. I don’t know very much about it, but I know it’s a YA African-inspired fantasy and that it has good reviews from what I’ve seen online, so I bought it.
Epic Fantasy Short Stories
This is just something fun I picked up because I went by Half-Price Books for an assignment I had to do for my publishing course, and of course I couldn’t resist buying some books while I was there (I also bought Assassin’s Apprentice and the next book on this list on that trip). All I know about it is what it says in the title and that the cover is gorgeous. I don’t know what authors are included in this anthology or anything else. They had a whole bunch of books like this one, anthology on different topics, and I tried to pick ones that I thought I would be the most interested in.
Norse Myths & Tales
That’s why I picked this book as well. This was another book in the same style (and from, I’m assuming, the same series) as the Epic Fantasy Short Stories one I just talked about. It’s got a beautiful cover, and I’ve been interested in learning more about various mythologies, so I thought I might as well get this book. I think it’s good to have a good base of things to take inspiration for stories from.
Okay! Those are all the books I’ve bought within the past couple of months! Thanks so much for reading! Let me know down in the comments, what’s the most recent book you bought?
See you next time!
-Ariel