Can't-Wait Wednesday: The Bone Shard War by Andrea Stewart, The Wager by David Grann, & In the Lives of Puppets by TJ Klune

  

 Can't-Wait is a weekly meme hosted by Wishful Endings that spotlights exciting upcoming releases that we can't wait to be released! This meme is based off of Jill @ Breaking the Spine's Waiting on Wednesday meme.

This week's upcoming book spotlights are: 

The Bone Shard War (The Drowning Empire #3) by Andrea Stewart
Publication: April 18th, 2023
Orbit
Hardcover. 624 pages.
Pre-order: Amazon | Bookshop.org

From Goodreads:
"The Bone Shard Daughter was hailed as "one of the best debut fantasy novels of the year" (BuzzFeed News). Now, Andrea Stewart brings us the final book in this unmissable, action-packed, magic-laced epic fantasy trilogy, The Bone Shard War.

Lin Sukai has won her first victory as Emperor, but the future of the Phoenix Empire hangs in the balance – and Lin is dangerously short of allies.

As her own governors plot treason, the Shardless Few renew hostilities. Worse still, Lin discovers her old nemesis Nisong has joined forces with the rogue Alanga, Ragan. Both seek her death.

Yet hopes lies in history. Legend tells of seven mythic swords, forged in centuries past. If Lin can find them before her enemies, she may yet be able to turn the tide.

If she fails, the Sukai dynasty – and the entire empire – will fall."

I've had an ARC of this final book in the trilogy sitting staring at me for quite a while and I'm hoping to get to it in March (fingers crossed!)!

The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder by David Grann
Publication: April 18th, 2023
Doubleday Books
Hardcover. 352 pages.
Pre-order: Amazon | Bookshop.org

From Goodreads:
"On January 28, 1742, a ramshackle vessel of patched-together wood and cloth washed up on the coast of Brazil. Inside were thirty emaciated men, barely alive, and they had an extraordinary tale to tell. They were survivors of His Majesty's Ship the Wager, a British vessel that had left England in 1740 on a secret mission during an imperial war with Spain. While the Wager had been chasing a Spanish treasure-filled galleon known as "the prize of all the oceans," it had wrecked on a desolate island off the coast of Patagonia. The men, after being marooned for months and facing starvation, built the flimsy craft and sailed for more than a hundred days, traversing nearly 3,000 miles of storm-wracked seas. They were greeted as heroes.

But then ... six months later, another, even more decrepit craft landed on the coast of Chile. This boat contained just three castaways, and they told a very different story. The thirty sailors who landed in Brazil were not heroes - they were mutineers. The first group responded with countercharges of their own, of a tyrannical and murderous senior officer and his henchmen. It became clear that while stranded on the island the crew had fallen into anarchy, with warring factions fighting for dominion over the barren wilderness. As accusations of treachery and murder flew, the Admiralty convened a court martial to determine who was telling the truth. The stakes were life-and-death--for whomever the court found guilty could hang.

The Wager is a grand tale of human behavior at the extremes told by one of our greatest nonfiction writers. Grann's recreation of the hidden world on a British warship rivals the work of Patrick O'Brian, his portrayal of the castaways' desperate straits stands up to the classics of survival writing such as The Endurance, and his account of the court martial has the savvy of a Scott Turow thriller. As always with Grann's work, the incredible twists of the narrative hold the reader spellbound."

I had no idea that David Grann, author of The Lost City of Z and Killers of the Flower Moon (both of which I loved!), had another book coming out so soon and I'm so excited about it–especially given how much I love nonfiction tales of shipwreck, survival, and more. 

In the Lives of Puppets by TJ Klune
Publication: April 25th, 2023
Tor Books
Hardcover. 432 pages.
Pre-order: Amazon | Bookshop.org

From Goodreads:
"In a strange little home built into the branches of a grove of trees, live three robots--fatherly inventor android Giovanni Lawson, a pleasantly sadistic nurse machine, and a small vacuum desperate for love and attention. Victor Lawson, a human, lives there too. They're a family, hidden and safe.

The day Vic salvages and repairs an unfamiliar android labelled "HAP," he learns of a shared dark past between Hap and Gio-a past spent hunting humans.

When Hap unwittingly alerts robots from Gio's former life to their whereabouts, the family is no longer hidden and safe. Gio is captured and taken back to his old laboratory in the City of Electric Dreams. So together, the rest of Vic's assembled family must journey across an unforgiving and otherworldly country to rescue Gio from decommission, or worse, reprogramming.

Along the way to save Gio, amid conflicted feelings of betrayal and affection for Hap, Vic must decide for himself: Can he accept love with strings attached?"

I've enjoyed a number of TJ Klune's books so I'm really curious to see how this one pans out. It sounds like an exceptionally creative premise. 

Can't-Wait Wednesday: Piñata by Leopoldo Gout, Clytemnestra by Costanza Casati, & In the Lives of Puppets by TJ Klune

  

 Can't-Wait is a weekly meme hosted by Wishful Endings that spotlights exciting upcoming releases that we can't wait to be released! This meme is based off of Jill @ Breaking the Spine's Waiting on Wednesday meme.

This week's upcoming book spotlights are: 

Piñata by Leopoldo Gout
Publication: March 14th, 2023
Tor Nightfire
Hardcover. 304 pages.
Pre-order: Amazon | Bookshop.org

From Goodreads:
"A Head Full of Ghosts meets Hereditary in Piñata, a terrifying possession tale by author and artist Leopoldo Gout.

Carmen Sanchez is back in her home country of Mexico, overseeing the renovation of an ancient cathedral into a boutique hotel. Her teen daughters, Izel and Luna, are with her for the summer, and left to fill their afternoons unsupervised in a foreign city.

The locals treat the Sanchez women like outsiders, while Carmen's contractors openly defy and sabotage her work. After a disastrous accident at the construction site nearly injures Luna, Carmen's had enough. They're leaving.

Back in New York, Luna begins acting strange, and only Izel notices the chilling changes happening to her younger sister. But it might be too late for the Sanchez family to escape what's been awakened...

Piñata is a bone-chilling story about how the sinister repercussions of our past can return to haunt us."

This is one of the coolest/weirdest covers I've seen in a while and it absolutely matches how weird and incredible this premise is. I really can't wait to see what Piñata is all about!

Clytemnestra by Constanza Casati
Publication: March 2nd, 2023
Sourcebooks Landmark
Hardcover. 448 pages.
Pre-order: Amazon | Bookshop.org

From Goodreads:
"For fans of Madeline Miller's Circe, a stunning debut following Clytemnestra, the most notorious villainess of the ancient world and the events that forged her into the legendary queen.

As for queens, they are either hated or forgotten. She already knows which option suits her best...

You were born to a king, but you marry a tyrant. You stand by helplessly as he sacrifices your child to placate the gods. You watch him wage war on a foreign shore, and you comfort yourself with violent thoughts of your own. Because this was not the first offence against you. This was not the life you ever deserved. And this will not be your undoing. Slowly, you plot.

But when your husband returns in triumph, you become a woman with a choice.

Acceptance or vengeance, infamy follows both. So, you bide your time and force the gods' hands in the game of retribution. For you understood something long ago that the others never did.

If power isn't given to you, you have to take it for yourself."

Am I getting a little tired of all the Greek mythology retellings lately? Honestly, it's a little overkill, so yes. Am I still going to get excited about them and read them all? Also yes. There have been so many about Clytemnestra lately it seems, but... I don't mind?

In the Lives of Puppets by TJ Klune
Publication: March 28th, 2023
Tor Books
Hardcover. 432 pages.
Pre-order: Amazon | Bookshop.org

From Goodreads:
"In a strange little home built into the branches of a grove of trees, live three robots--fatherly inventor android Giovanni Lawson, a pleasantly sadistic nurse machine, and a small vacuum desperate for love and attention. Victor Lawson, a human, lives there too. They're a family, hidden and safe.

The day Vic salvages and repairs an unfamiliar android labelled "HAP," he learns of a shared dark past between Hap and Gio-a past spent hunting humans.

When Hap unwittingly alerts robots from Gio's former life to their whereabouts, the family is no longer hidden and safe. Gio is captured and taken back to his old laboratory in the City of Electric Dreams. So together, the rest of Vic's assembled family must journey across an unforgiving and otherworldly country to rescue Gio from decommission, or worse, reprogramming.

Along the way to save Gio, amid conflicted feelings of betrayal and affection for Hap, Vic must decide for himself: Can he accept love with strings attached?"

I'm very excited about this latest release from TJ Klune! His previous books I've read have been very heartwarming and easy to read, and sometimes that sounds like exactly what I need. I really love how odd this one sounds and think it'll be a lot of fun. 

What do you think of these upcoming releases?

Review: Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune

Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune
Inkyard Press
Publication Date: October 5th, 2021
Hardcover. 480 pages.

About Under the Whispering Door:

"When a reaper comes to collect Wallace Price from his own funeral, Wallace suspects he really might be dead. 

Instead of leading him directly to the afterlife, the reaper takes him to a small village. On the outskirts, off the path through the woods, tucked between mountains, is a particular tea shop, run by a man named Hugo. Hugo is the tea shop's owner to locals and the ferryman to souls who need to cross over. 

But Wallace isn't ready to abandon the life he barely lived. With Hugo's help he finally starts to learn about all the things he missed in life. 

When the Manager, a curious and powerful being, arrives at the tea shop and gives Wallace one week to cross over, Wallace sets about living a lifetime in seven days."

Under the Whispering Door is a wholesome, thoughtful, bittersweet contemporary fantasy story about what happens after we die–specifically, what happens to Wallace Price after his passing from a rather dreary, serious life. And because I've seen a bit of confusion around this, please note that this is not a House in the Cerulean Sea sequel and does not have anything to do with that book, but it does still contain Klune's delightful ideas and plot and has a lot of great things to offer that I think you'll love if you also loved The House in the Cerulean Sea. 

As mentioned, this book follows Wallace Price, a recently deceased lawyer who is thrust into the unexpected situation of facing his own life after his death as he discovers what the afterlife really is. Wallace was a rather arrogant and selfish man in his lifetime as a lawyer, and it is with the help of some quirky, endearing characters–including his very own reaper–that he must confront this life and attempt to figure out how to move on from it. I really appreciated Wallace's character development throughout this story, and especially how his relationship with each additional character evolved in their own ways and at their own pace. And it's not only Wallace that undergoes his own development, but every character seemed to have their own unique path that was explored in varying degrees of detail throughout the progression of the story. 

Under the Whispering Door takes place almost entirely in one main location–Hugo's tea shop–and I was impressed by how much Klune managed to pack into that one primary setting. There is so much color and depth within the pages of this book and the characters we meet, all developed fully with multi-dimensional personalities and backstories that helped to flesh everything out. The tea shop itself was a delight, from it's quirky description and structure to the various adventures and both light and heavy conversations that take place within. I may not be a fan of tea (I know, I'm sorry), but something about Hugo's passion for tea and finding the right tea for every single person really made me want to go start drinking tea and find deeper meaning and calmness with it, much in the way he does for the people he meets and helps. 

This story heavily explores themes of loss, grief, and regret, and I think it does so in a really excellent and effect manner. It was a little saccharine sweet at times in its messaging, and yes this led to it feeling ever so slightly sappy at times, but I think that's exactly what this book was meant to be, and I think it's both what people want from this book and that it works perfectly as a much-needed comfort right now. 

My only real complaint about this book would be with the some overdone dialogue and messaging. The themes previously mentioned are explored well in the book, but at times it felt like I was reading variations of the same general ideas over and over again, and it became a bit repetitive and almost dull at times. A lot of the dialogue felt slightly predictable or cliche at times as well, and although this isn't necessarily a bad thing, it did leave me feeling slightly wanting at times. The House in the Cerulean Sea had similar firm elements of instilling messaging that I know some people didn't care for (although it didn't bother me), but this book just felt slightly more repetitive and heavy-handed at times. 

Overall, I've given Under the Whispering Door four stars! If you are looking for a wholesome contemporary fantasy read, with both some sadness and hopefulness, then this is the perfect book to pick up. 

*I received a copy of Under the Whispering Door courtesy of the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.*

Buy the book: Amazon | Indiebound 

Review: The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune

The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune
Tor

Publication Date: March 17th, 2020

Hardcover. 400 pages

About The House in the Cerulean Sea:

"A magical island. A dangerous task. A burning secret. Linus Baker leads a quiet, solitary life. At forty, he lives in a tiny house with a devious cat and his old records. As a Case Worker at the Department in Charge Of Magical Youth, he spends his days overseeing the well-being of children in government-sanctioned orphanages. 

When Linus is unexpectedly summoned by Extremely Upper Management he's given a curious and highly classified assignment: travel to Marsyas Island Orphanage, where six dangerous children reside: a gnome, a sprite, a wyvern, an unidentifiable green blob, a were-Pomeranian, and the Antichrist. Linus must set aside his fears and determine whether or not they’re likely to bring about the end of days. 

But the children aren’t the only secret the island keeps. Their caretaker is the charming and enigmatic Arthur Parnassus, who will do anything to keep his wards safe. As Arthur and Linus grow closer, long-held secrets are exposed, and Linus must make a choice: destroy a home or watch the world burn. 

An enchanting story, masterfully told, The House in the Cerulean Sea is about the profound experience of discovering an unlikely family in an unexpected place—and realizing that family is yours."

I absolutely adored this book and as such, this review is mostly going to be me gushing about it, but I'll try to keep it coherent. I'm almost nervous to write this review because I don't know where to start and I don't know how to do this book justice, but I am going to try!

The first and most important thing about this book are the characters. I genuinely loved and cared about each and every one of these characters (and I sort of feel so protective of them that I swear I would die for any one of them). Linus Baker, our protagonist, is living a quiet life working for the Department in Charge of Magical Youth (DICOMY) as a Case Worker. He seems to mostly enjoy his job, but it's clear to readers that despite whatever Linus chooses to tell himself about his life, he isn't really living and to say he's 'happy' seems a stretch. Linus is one of those characters that you sort of just want to hug (although you probably wouldn't because he doesn't seem like the type to enjoy hugs from random people) and watching him embark on an experience unlike any he's ever been on, where he learns new things about himself and the world around him, was remarkable. I was so drawn to Linus' character and found that so many of the things he struggled with were applicable to my own--such as realizing that sometimes 'good enough' isn't really enough--and I couldn't have asked for a more wonderful character to follow. He isn't the most enthusiastic sort of person, but he has this fantastic dry wit for his sense of humor that I couldn't get enough of.

In addition to Linus is the rest of our phenomenal cast of characters: there's Arthur Parnassus, the man in charge of the orphanage Linus visits; the magical youth living at the orphanage: Chauncey, Lucy, Sal, Talia, Phee, and Theodore; the resident island sprite, Zoe; and, of course, we can't forget Linus' cat, Calliope. I fell so hard for all of these characters and sincerely loved all of them. Each one was so carefully crafted with such distinct and wide-ranging personalities--it's rare to see such amazing characterization that holds strong and true for each and every character, but I can tell that characters must be Klune's strong point because they were all so well-written. I would try to pinpoint one of my favorites, but honestly, I think they are all my favorites. Linus' cat, Calliope, truly steals every scene she's in, though. Altogether, each and every one of these extremely varied and rather odd characters makes up the most perfect mismatched family and I have never want to be a part of a family as much as I wanted to be a part of this one!

Klune also appears to be a master at writing dialogue, and the banter among all of the youth easily became of the most enjoyable parts of this book. I laughed out loud so many times while reading this book and I felt so fulfilled and happy every time I picked it up and put it down. The way that he captures what it's like for an adult like Linus to be interacting with such a wild and unpredictable group of magical youth was a true delight. Additionally, the more serious dialogue that occurred for more serious and difficult topics was also carefully done and felt both authentic and full of impact. Klune is really good at maneuvering within a huge variety of topics in such a deft way that never makes it feel difficult to get through or understand.

I don't want to spoil anything specific about the plot, but I can tell you that one of the reasons that I think I liked this so much is because of it's sort of 'slice-of-life' feel, where there aren't really intense action-packed scenes or anything, but rather it is following Linus as he observes and tries to understand how things at Mr. Parnassus' orphanage work and about the youth that live there. The pacing was perfect for me and was what I would call very steady--not too slow, but not too fast, either, just very continuously moving forward while still taking the time to focus on certain topics and scenes whenever necessary. There is also a tiny bit of romance in this book and it is so beautiful and innocent and truly made my cold black heart just melt. It doesn't take over the story, but it fits in like the perfect final piece of a puzzle--small, but vital to the completion of the entire puzzle.

This story handles some extremely heavy but very important topics and I think Klune weaved all of those elements into the story so smoothly so that they never felt overwhelming, but they were very clear and easily understood. Honestly, this book is just beautiful. I laughed and teared up (for both happy and sad reasons) and I also found myself subconsciously reading this book so slooowly because I don't think I ever wanted to finish. It was hard for me to move on from this book and get my headspace ready for another book after because it just made me feel so good to read this book. It spoke to me not only from a personally relevant standpoint, but because it's such a wonderful story of love, acceptance, and what it means to be a family.

Overall, I've given The House in the Cerulean Sea an obvious five stars. This is easily going to be a book that I re-read and re-read over and and over, especially when I'm struggling a lot with depression or anxiety because it made me feel so at home and content and happy. I really can't recommend this story enough--it's bittersweet at times, but also hilarious, relevant, and full of life and love and family.

*I received a copy of The House in the Cerulean Sea courtesy of the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This has no effect on my rating of the novel.*

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