Bookish | Most Anticipated of 2016 (Popular Author Edition!)

So I’ve already gone through my most anticipated reads from auto-buy authors, my most anticipated debuts, and now it’s time for some of my most anticipated books from fairly well-known authors. I’m sure many of you have heard of some of these, but I couldn’t not include them just because we’re all eagerly anticipating some very hyped books. So for my first most anticipated list, I just gushed about my own feelings; for my second, I let the synopses (synopsi?) speak for themselves. This one, I’m going to do a little of both. sorry not really sorry at all

21414439Speaking of hype, my first pick is Truthwitch by Susan Dennard (pub. January 5, 2016). I’ve never read a Susan Dennard book, but I have totally bought into the hype on this one because I love witches and magic and female friendship and beautiful covers.

On a continent ruled by three empires, some are born with a “witchery”, a magical skill that sets them apart from others.

In the Witchlands, there are almost as many types of magic as there are ways to get in trouble—as two desperate young women know all too well.

Safiya is a Truthwitch, able to discern truth from lie. It’s a powerful magic that many would kill to have on their side, especially amongst the nobility to which Safi was born. So Safi must keep her gift hidden, lest she be used as a pawn in the struggle between empires.

Iseult, a Threadwitch, can see the invisible ties that bind and entangle the lives around her—but she cannot see the bonds that touch her own heart. Her unlikely friendship with Safi has taken her from life as an outcast into one of reckless adventure, where she is a cool, wary balance to Safi’s hotheaded impulsiveness.

Safi and Iseult just want to be free to live their own lives, but war is coming to the Witchlands. With the help of the cunning Prince Merik (a Windwitch and ship’s captain) and the hindrance of a Bloodwitch bent on revenge, the friends must fight emperors, princes, and mercenaries alike, who will stop at nothing to get their hands on a Truthwitch.

20983362Almost as hype is Passenger by Alexandra Bracken (pub. January 5, 2016). Shockingly, I also have never read her Darkest Minds series. I know, I’m a bad reader. Even though I’ve started hearing some mix reviews about Passenger, I also know many people got ARCs at BEA, where everyone was warned that the book had already changed a whole lot… So I am taking those reviews with a grain of salt.

passage, n.
i. A brief section of music composed of a series of notes and flourishes.
ii. A journey by water; a voyage.
iii. The transition from one place to another, across space and time.

In one devastating night, violin prodigy Etta Spencer loses everything she knows and loves. Thrust into an unfamiliar world by a stranger with a dangerous agenda, Etta is certain of only one thing: she has traveled not just miles but years from home. And she’s inherited a legacy she knows nothing about from a family whose existence she’s never heard of. Until now.

Nicholas Carter is content with his life at sea, free from the Ironwoods—a powerful family in the colonies—and the servitude he’s known at their hands. But with the arrival of an unusual passenger on his ship comes the insistent pull of the past that he can’t escape and the family that won’t let him go so easily. Now the Ironwoods are searching for a stolen object of untold value, one they believe only Etta, Nicholas’ passenger, can find. In order to protect her, he must ensure she brings it back to them— whether she wants to or not.

Together, Etta and Nicholas embark on a perilous journey across centuries and continents, piecing together clues left behind by the traveler who will do anything to keep the object out of the Ironwoods’ grasp. But as they get closer to the truth of their search, and the deadly game the Ironwoods are play­ing, treacherous forces threaten to separate Etta not only from Nicholas but from her path home . . . forever.

25324111I have mixed feelings about Kierstin White, but I have to admit And I Darken (pub. June 28, 2016) sounds pretty fantastic. I absolutely hated Paranormalcy, and I really adore Illusions of Fate, so this book has a 50/50 chance at being really good or very bad.

NO ONE EXPECTS A PRINCESS TO BE BRUTAL. And Lada Dragwlya likes it that way. Ever since she and her gentle younger brother, Radu, were wrenched from their homeland of Wallachia and abandoned by their father to be raised in the Ottoman courts, Lada has known that being ruthless is the key to survival. She and Radu are doomed to act as pawns in a vicious game, an unseen sword hovering over their every move. For the lineage that makes them special also makes them targets.

Lada despises the Ottomans and bides her time, planning her vengeance for the day when she can return to Wallachia and claim her birthright. Radu longs only for a place where he feels safe. And when they meet Mehmed, the defiant and lonely son of the sultan, who’s expected to rule a nation, Radu feels that he’s made a true friend—and Lada wonders if she’s finally found someone worthy of her passion.

But Mehmed is heir to the very empire that Lada has sworn to fight against—and that Radu now considers home. Together, Lada, Radu, and Mehmed form a toxic triangle that strains the bonds of love and loyalty to the breaking point.

19254725Perhaps not as well known or widely hyped is Gena/Finn by Hannah Moskowitz (author of Not Otherwise Specified) and Kat Helgeson (pub. April 5, 2016). I’ve been recommended Not Otherwise Specified before, and just haven’t picked it up because, well, I’m a cover snob. I’m hoping and praying that Gena/Finn has some bisexual romance that my bookshelf sorely needs.

The story follows the unlikely friendship of two young women forged via fan fiction and message boards, and is told entirely in texts, chats, and blog posts.

Gena (short for Genevieve) and Finn (short for Stephanie) have little in common. Book-smart Gena is preparing to leave her posh boarding school for college; down-to-earth Finn is a twenty-something struggling to make ends meet in the big city. Gena’s romantic life is a series of reluctant one-night-stands; Finn is making a go of it with long-term boyfriend Charlie. But they share a passion for Up Below, a buddy cop TV show with a cult fan following. Gena is a darling of the fangirl scene, keeping a popular blog and writing fan fiction. Finn’s online life is a secret, even from Charlie. The pair spark an unlikely online friendship that deepens quickly (so quickly it scares them both), and as their individual “real” lives begin to fall apart, they increasingly seek shelter online, and with each other.

20499652And finally, the book that has probably been on my most anticipated list longer than any other, Bluescreen by Dan Wells (pub. February 16, 2016). I met Dan Wells recently at a signing and he was really intelligent, very funny and interesting, and extremely imaginative. I was actually surprised that I had avoided his books for so long, but I’m happy that this book is coming out soon so I can remedy that.

Los Angeles in 2050 is a city of open doors, as long as you have the right connections. That connection is a djinni—a smart device implanted right in a person’s head. In a world where virtually everyone is online twenty-four hours a day, this connection is like oxygen—and a world like that presents plenty of opportunities for someone who knows how to manipulate it.

Marisa Carneseca is one of those people. She might spend her days in Mirador, the small, vibrant LA neighborhood where her family owns a restaurant, but she lives on the net—going to school, playing games, hanging out, or doing things of more questionable legality with her friends Sahara and Anja. And it’s Anja who first gets her hands on Bluescreen—a virtual drug that plugs right into a person’s djinni and delivers a massive, non-chemical, completely safe high. But in this city, when something sounds too good to be true, it usually is, and Mari and her friends soon find themselves in the middle of a conspiracy that is much bigger than they ever suspected.

Dan Wells, author of the New York Times bestselling Partials Sequence, returns with a stunning new vision of the near future—a breathless cyber-thriller where privacy is the world’s most rare resource and nothing, not even the thoughts in our heads, is safe.

That about wraps up my most anticipated books of the first half of 2016. Remember to check out my Goodreads shelf for a list of every 2016 release that has piqued my interest!

alecksis.

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