Happy Sunday Bibliofriends,

Yet another week of lockdown done and dusted! This week’s Six For Sunday, continuing with our ‘It’s All About Books’ theme is centred around ‘Books I’m Excited For in 2021’. So I’m practically super excited for my physical 2021 TBR but I feel like I’ve already mentioned those books a load of times already. My ‘anticipated reads’ game has also been way off so far, mainly because I’ve been concentrating on getting through the afore mentioned TBR and finishing series rather than starting them! With that in mind, I’ve actually gone through my NetGalley Request list and added a few of those in here too as I’m obviously intrigued to read them when they are released later in 2021…!

For those who don’t already know, Six for Sunday is weekly meme hosted by Steph over at A Little But A Lot.

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Books I’m Excited to Read in 2021!

1. Written in Starlight by Isabel Ibanez – publishes Jan 2021
   I’m already a little confused as to whether this is a sequel or a companion novel? I purposefully haven’t read the blurb but I just remember loving Ximena’s magic and woolly animals in the first novel that I’m definitely going to have to Ibanez’s follow up. I’ve recently read some reviews digging a little deeper into the representation (or misrepresentation may be more accurate) Woven In Moonlight gave about Bolivian politics so I’m intrigued as to what this novel will be like.
   
   Blurb from Goodreads:
   An adventerous South American Tomb Raider! This hotly anticipated companion to Woven in Moonlight follows an outcast Condesa, as she braves the jungle to forge an alliance with the lost city of gold.
   If the jungle wants you, it will have you…
   Catalina Quiroga is a Condesa without a country. She’s lost the Inkasisa throne, the loyalty of her people, and her best friend. Banished to the perilous Yanu Jungle, Catalina knows her chances of survival are slim, but that won’t stop her from trying to escape. It’s her duty to reclaim the throne.
   When Manuel, the son of her former general, rescues Catalina from a jaguar, a plan forms. Deep in the jungle, the city of gold is hidden, home to the fierce Illari people, who she could strike an alliance with.
   But the elusive Illari are fighting a battle of their own—a mysterious blight is corrupting the jungle, laying waste to everything they hold dear. As a seer, Catalina should be able to help, but her ability to read the future in the stars is as feeble as her survival instincts. While searching for the Illari, Catalina must reckon with her duty and her heart to find her true calling, which could be the key to stopping the corruption before it destroys the jungle completely.
   
2. Poison Priestess (Lady Slayers) by Lana Popovic – publishes April 2021
   I absolutely loved Popovic’s writing style and world-building in Wicked Like A Wildfire and although I’m yet to read the sequel to that duology, I’m still really excited to see what tales Popovic weaves in this second instalment of the Lady Slayers series.
   
   Blurb from Goodreads:
   In 17th-century Paris, 19-year-old Catherine Monvoisin is a well-heeled jeweler’s wife with a peculiar taste for the arcane. She lives a comfortable life, far removed from a childhood of abject destitution—until her kind spendthrift of a husband lands them both in debt. Hell-bent on avoiding a return to poverty, Catherine must rely on her prophetic visions and the grimoire gifted to her by a talented diviner to reinvent herself as a sorceress. With the help of the grifter Marie Bosse, Catherine divines fortunes in the IIle de la Citee—home to sorcerers and scoundrels.
   There she encounters the Marquise de Montespan, a stunning noblewoman. When the Marquise becomes Louis XIV’s royal mistress with Catherine’s help, her ascension catapults Catherine to notoriety. Catherine takes easily to her glittering new life as the Sorceress La Voisin, pitting the depraved noblesse against one other to her advantage. The stakes soar ever higher when her path crosses with that of a young magician. A charged rivalry between sorceress and magician leads to Black Masses, tangled deceptions, and grisly murder—and sets Catherine on a collision course that threatens her own life.
   
3. All Our Hidden Gifts by Caroline O’ Donoghue – publishes July 2021
   Not gonna lie – the pretty cover drew me in and then the Tarot Cards had me sold on this one! I’m keeping my fingers crossed I get this arc request as it sounds like such a fun read!
   
   Blurb from Goodreads:
   Maeve Chambers doesn’t have much going for her. Not only does she feel like the sole idiot in a family of geniuses, she managed to drive away her best friend Lily a year ago. But when she finds a pack of dusty old tarot cards at school, and begins to give scarily accurate readings to the girls in her class, she realizes she’s found her gift at last. Things are looking up – until she discovers a strange card in the deck that definitely shouldn’t be there. And two days after she convinces her ex-best friend to have a reading, Lily disappears.
   Can Maeve, her new friend Fiona and Lily’s brother Roe find her? And will their special talents be enough to bring Lily back, before she’s gone for good?
   
4. She Who Became The Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan – publishes July 2021
   The description of this book gave me such Mulan vibes and even better that it’s based on the founding of the Ming Dynasty.
   
   Blurb from Goodreads:
   Mulan meets The Song of Achilles in Shelley Parker-Chan’s She Who Became the Sun, a bold, queer, and lyrical reimagining of the rise of the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty from an amazing new voice in literary fantasy.
   To possess the Mandate of Heaven, the female monk Zhu will do anything
   “I refuse to be nothing…”
   In a famine-stricken village on a dusty yellow plain, two children are given two fates. A boy, greatness. A girl, nothingness…
   In 1345, China lies under harsh Mongol rule. For the starving peasants of the Central Plains, greatness is something found only in stories. When the Zhu family’s eighth-born son, Zhu Chongba, is given a fate of greatness, everyone is mystified as to how it will come to pass. The fate of nothingness received by the family’s clever and capable second daughter, on the other hand, is only as expected.
   When a bandit attack orphans the two children, though, it is Zhu Chongba who succumbs to despair and dies. Desperate to escape her own fated death, the girl uses her brother’s identity to enter a monastery as a young male novice. There, propelled by her burning desire to survive, Zhu learns she is capable of doing whatever it takes, no matter how callous, to stay hidden from her fate.
   After her sanctuary is destroyed for supporting the rebellion against Mongol rule, Zhu takes the chance to claim another future altogether: her brother’s abandoned greatness.
   
   At the Publisher’s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
   
5. Rainbow in the Dark by Sean McGinty – publishes August 2021
   Yet again, I’m such a clickbait for taglines on books. Wizard of Oz meets Ready Player One *jaw drop*! I need this book in my life and cannot wait for it to come out! #praystothenetgalleygods
   
   Blurb from Goodreads:
   The Wizard of Oz meets Ready Player One in this darkly comic YA novel about identity, depression, giving up, and finding your way home.
   High school senior Rainbow is trapped with three other teens in a game-like world that may or may not be real. Together, they must complete quests and gain experience in order to access their own forgotten memories, decode what has happened to them, and find a portal home.
   As Rainbow’s memories slowly return, the story of a lonely teen facing senior year as the new kid in a small town emerges. Surreal, absurdist humor balances sensitively handled themes of suicide, depression, and the search for identity in an unpredictable and ultimately hopeful page-turner that’s perfect for fans of Shaun David Hutchinson, Adam Silvera, and Libba Bray’s Going Bovine.
   
6. A Vow So Bold and Deadly by Brigid Kemmerer – publishes Jan 2021
   This is one trilogy finale that I will be needing to read sooner rather than later! I loved the first two in the Cursebreakers series and after reading a sneak peek of AVSBAD from each character’s perspective then this one is definitely going to be added to the purchase list!
   
   Blurb from Goodreads:
   Face your fears, fight the battle.
   Emberfall is crumbling fast, torn between those who believe Rhen is the rightful prince and those who are eager to begin a new era under Grey, the true heir. Grey has agreed to wait two months before attacking Emberfall, and in that time, Rhen has turned away from everyone—even Harper, as she desperately tries to help him find a path to peace. 
   Fight the battle, save the kingdom.
   Meanwhile, Lia Mara struggles to rule Syhl Shallow with a gentler hand than her mother. But after enjoying decades of peace once magic was driven out of their lands, some of her subjects are angry Lia Mara has an enchanted prince and magical scraver by her side. As Grey’s deadline draws nearer, Lia Mara questions if she can be the queen her country needs.
   As two kingdoms come closer to conflict, loyalties are tested, love is threatened, and an old enemy resurfaces who could destroy them all, in this stunning conclusion to bestselling author Brigid Kemmerer’s Cursebreaker series.

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What books are you looking forward to reading in 2021? What do you think will be your most anticipated read of the year?
As always, leave your links below to your own posts or drop me a comment to chat!

T xx