WWW Wednesday | Reads to Start Out the New Year

Welcome to WWW Wednesday! This meme was formerly hosted by MizB at A Daily Rhythm and revived on Taking on a World of Words.

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

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I’m starting another marathon-type period of 3 or more reviews per week that starts next week and goes through the first week of March. This means that I have to read each book on my schedule in two days 🙀 to get them all done before publication date and/or assigned blog tour stop date. It’s a reading marathon, without a doubt.

This weekend, I read Knight’s Ransom by Jeff Wheeler. It’s a classic epic fantasy that focuses on a knight named Ransom. I loved it! It’s Arthurian-legend inspired, which I can’t get enough of. It’s the kind of story that makes you just want to sink into a comfy chair next to a warm fire and let yourself be taken away “to a land of myth and a time of magic.”

I just finished The Unadjusteds, which is a The Write Reads blog tour book. I would categorize it as a dystopian-type YA fantasy. It’s a very compelling story. It’s just missing a certain something that would take it from a 4-star read to a 5-star read for me. I think the problem lies somewhere within world-building and showing rather than telling.

By the time you read this, I will be well into Legendborn which I got from the library. My little town sponsors a program called ReadDavidson, which is, basically, a town-wide bookclub that “meets” once per year. This year, 4 books/genres were chosen rather than just one – YA being one of those genres and Legendborn being the book in the YA category. It was already on my TBR list, so I was more than happy to read it in preparation for town events later this year.

Next, I’m reading Murder on the Menu for a Rachel’s Random Resources blog tour. It looks like a cute yet a touch gritty new British cozy mystery series.

So, that’s my reading week. What does yours look like?

Legendborn by Tracy Deonn

• Genre: Fantasy
• Publication Date : September 15, 2020
• Print Length: 511 pgs
• Publisher : Margaret K. McElderry Books

Book Description

Filled with mystery and an intriguingly rich magic system, Tracy Deonn’s YA contemporary fantasy Legendborn offers the dark allure of City of Bones with a modern-day twist on a classic legend and a lot of Southern Black Girl Magic.

After her mother dies in an accident, sixteen-year-old Bree Matthews wants nothing to do with her family memories or childhood home. A residential program for bright high schoolers at UNC–Chapel Hill seems like the perfect escape—until Bree witnesses a magical attack her very first night on campus.

A flying demon feeding on human energies.

A secret society of so called “Legendborn” students that hunt the creatures down.

And a mysterious teenage mage who calls himself a “Merlin” and who attempts—and fails—to wipe Bree’s memory of everything she saw.

The mage’s failure unlocks Bree’s own unique magic and a buried memory with a hidden connection: the night her mother died, another Merlin was at the hospital. Now that Bree knows there’s more to her mother’s death than what’s on the police report, she’ll do whatever it takes to find out the truth, even if that means infiltrating the Legendborn as one of their initiates.

She recruits Nick, a self-exiled Legendborn with his own grudge against the group, and their reluctant partnership pulls them deeper into the society’s secrets—and closer to each other. But when the Legendborn reveal themselves as the descendants of King Arthur’s knights and explain that a magical war is coming, Bree has to decide how far she’ll go for the truth and whether she should use her magic to take the society down—or join the fight.

The Unadjusteds by Marisa Noelle

• Genre: Fantasy
• Print Length: 274 pgs
• Publisher: Write Plan
• Publication Date: November 10, 2019

Book Description:

GENETIC MODIFICATION HAS CHANGED THE WORLD

WANT WINGS? SUPER SPEED? INCREASED INTELLIGENCE? A CURE FOR EVERY DISEASE?

Sixteen-year-old Silver Melody lives in a world where 80% of the population has modified their DNA. Known as the altereds, those people now possess enhancements like wings, tails, and increased strength or intelligence. Although Silver’s parents created the nanite pill used to deliver these genetic modifications, Silver is proud of her unadjusted state.

However, when the president declares all unadjusteds must take a nanite, Silver has no choice but to flee the city with her father and some friends to prevent the extinction of the unadjusteds.

With Silver’s mother in prison for treason, Silver’s father is the unadjusteds’ only hope at finding a cure. But time is running out as Silver’s father is captured by the president’s almost immortal army. Vicious hellhounds are on Silver’s trail, and her only chance to recover her father involves teaming up with a new group of unlikely friends before all humanity is lost.

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Knight’s Ransom by Jeff Wheeler

• Genre: Epic Fantasy
• Print Length: 431 pgs
• Publisher: 47North
• Publication Date: January 26, 2021

Book Description

Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown. A brutal war of succession has plunged the court of Kingfountain into a power struggle between a charitable king who took the crown unlawfully and his ambitious rival, Devon Argentine. The balance of power between the two men hinges on the fate of a young boy ensnared in this courtly intrigue. A boy befittingly nicknamed Ransom.

When the Argentine family finally rules, Ransom must make his own way in the world. Opportunities open and shut before him as he journeys along the path to knighthood, blind to a shadowy conspiracy of jealousy and revenge. Securing his place will not be easy, nor will winning the affection of Lady Claire de Murrow, a fiery young heiress from an unpredictably mad kingdom.

Ransom interrupts an abduction plot targeting the Queen of Ceredigion and earns a position in service to her son, the firstborn of the new Argentine dynasty. But conflict and treachery threaten the family, and Ransom must also come to understand and hone his burgeoning powers—abilities that involve more than his mastery with a blade and that make him as much a target as his lord.

Murder on the Menu by Fiona Leitch

• Genre: Cozy Mystery
• Print Length: 286 pgs
• Publisher: One More Chapter HC
• Publication Date: January 15, 2021

Book Description

Still spinning from the hustle and bustle of city life, Jodie ‘Nosey’ Parker is glad to be back in the Cornish village she calls home. Having quit the Met Police in search of something less dangerous, the change of pace means she can finally start her dream catering company and raise her daughter, Daisy, somewhere safer.

But there’s nothing like having your first job back at home to be catering an ex-boyfriend’s wedding to remind you of just how small your village is. And when the bride, Cheryl, vanishes Jodie is drawn into the investigation, realising that life in the countryside might not be as quaint as she remembers…

With a missing bride on their hands, there is murder and mayhem around every corner but surely saving the day will be a piece of cake for this not-so-amateur sleuth?

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Don’t forget to tell to me about the book(s) you are reading this week (in the comments). ✨ I love hearing about them. ❤️