February 2024 TBR

What’s on your February TBR?

I’ve got two ARCs this month — A Tempest of Tea by Hafsah Faizal and Lady Macbeth by Ava Reid — that I’m very excited for, and I’m also hoping to get through Realm Breaker by Victoria Aveyard. I really enjoyed her Red Queen series, so I’m interested to read more of her work.

And February’s BOTM pick is going to be To Poison a King (The Heirs of Isla, #1) by S.G. Prince! Are you going to read along with me?

To Poison a King (The Heirs of Isla, #1) by S.G. Prince

February Book of the Month Pick

S.G. Prince's new standalone is a breathtaking fantasy about sacrifice, self-discovery, and a girl tasked with saving the very man she aimed to kill.

Selene is the youngest daughter in a gifted line of healers, born to serve as the king's royal physician. Yet when Selene's mother Persaphe embroils her in a plot to kill the king, Selene finds herself poisoning the very man she is sworn to protect.

Things seem bleak, but there is another problem—the poison doesn’t work, and the king doesn’t die. Rather, he awakes from his coma paralyzed, aware of the attempt on his life, and furious.

With the palace in a state of upheaval and everyone hunting the king's poisoner, Persaphe flees, leaving Selene the task of rehabilitating the man she aimed to kill, all while hiding her true role in his demise. What follows is a journey spanning years and continents, as a king and his servant develop into unlikely friends…and more. Yet the closer Selene grows to the king, the more her secret weighs on her, as does her growing fear that Persaphe—having failed to kill him once—might return to try again.

A Tempest of Tea (Blood and Tea, #1) by Hafsah Faizal

Expected Publication Date: February 20, 2024

From Hafsah Faizal, New York Times–bestselling author of We Hunt the Flame, comes the first book in a hotly-anticipated new fantasy duology about an orphan girl and her crew who get tangled in a heist with vampires, perfect for fans of Leigh Bardugo’s Six of Crows.

On the streets of White Roaring, Arthie Casimir is a criminal mastermind and collector of secrets. Her prestigious tearoom transforms into an illegal bloodhouse by dark, catering to the vampires feared by society. But when her establishment is threatened, Arthie is forced to strike an unlikely deal with an alluring adversary to save it—and she can’t do the job alone.

Calling upon a band of misfits, Arthie formulates a plan to infiltrate the dark and glittering vampire society known as the Athereum. But not every member of her crew is on her side, and as the truth behind the heist unfolds, Arthie finds herself in the midst of a conspiracy that will threaten the world as she knows it. Dark, action-packed, and swoonworthy, this is Hafsah Faizal better than ever.

Lady Macbeth by Ava Reid

Expected Publication Date: August 6, 2024

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Ava Reid comes a reimagining of Lady Macbeth, Shakespeare’s most famous villainess, giving her a voice, a past, and a power that transforms the story men have written for her.

The Lady knows the stories: how her eyes induce madness in men.

The Lady knows she will be wed to the Scottish brute, who does not leave his warrior ways behind when he comes to the marriage bed.

The Lady knows his hostile, suspicious court will be a game of strategy, requiring all of her wiles and hidden witchcraft to survive.

But the Lady does not know her husband has occult secrets of his own. She does not know that prophecy girds him like armor. She does not know that her magic is greater and more dangerous, and that it will threaten the order of the world.

She does not know this yet. But she will.

The Cruel Prince (The Folk of the Air, #1) by Holly Black

Planned Reread

Of course I want to be like them. They’re beautiful as blades forged in some divine fire. They will live forever.

And Cardan is even more beautiful than the rest. I hate him more than all the others. I hate him so much that sometimes when I look at him, I can hardly breathe.

Jude was seven when her parents were murdered and she and her two sisters were stolen away to live in the treacherous High Court of Faerie. Ten years later, Jude wants nothing more than to belong there, despite her mortality. But many of the fey despise humans. Especially Prince Cardan, the youngest and wickedest son of the High King.

To win a place at the Court, she must defy him–and face the consequences.

As Jude becomes more deeply embroiled in palace intrigues and deceptions, she discovers her own capacity for trickery and bloodshed. But as betrayal threatens to drown the Courts of Faerie in violence, Jude will need to risk her life in a dangerous alliance to save her sisters, and Faerie itself.

The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air, #2) by Holly Black

Planned Reread

You must be strong enough to strike and strike and strike again without tiring.

The first lesson is to make yourself strong.

After the jaw-dropping revelation that Oak is the heir to Faerie, Jude must keep her brother safe. To do so, she has bound the wicked king, Cardan, to her, and made herself the power behind the throne. Navigating the constantly shifting political alliances of Faerie would be difficult enough if Cardan were easy to control. But he does everything in his power to humiliate and undermine her even as his fascination with her remains undiminished.

When it becomes all too clear that someone close to Jude means to betray her, threatening her own life and the lives of everyone she loves, Jude must uncover the traitor and fight her own complicated feelings for Cardan to maintain control as a mortal in a Faerie world.

The Queen of Nothing (The Folk of the Air, #3) by Holly Black

Planned Reread

He will be destruction of the crown and the ruination of the throne.

Power is much easier to acquire than it is to hold onto. Jude learned this lesson when she released her control over the wicked king, Cardan, in exchange for immeasurable power.

Now as the exiled mortal Queen of Faerie, Jude is powerless and left reeling from Cardan’s betrayal. She bides her time determined to reclaim everything he took from her. Opportunity arrives in the form of her deceptive twin sister, Taryn, whose mortal life is in peril.

Jude must risk venturing back into the treacherous Faerie Court, and confront her lingering feelings for Cardan, if she wishes to save her sister. But Elfhame is not as she left it. War is brewing. As Jude slips deep within enemy lines she becomes ensnared in the conflict’s bloody politics.

And, when a dormant yet powerful curse is unleashed, panic spreads throughout the land, forcing her to choose between her ambition and her humanity…

Dance of Stars and Ashes (The Nightfire Quartet, #2) by Nisha J. Tuli

Expected Publication Date: February 16, 2024

A love that burns brighter than starlight. A gift that could leave her world in ashes. It’s time for Zarya to release the fire within.

In the jeweled city of Dharati, Zarya found passion and adventure for the first time. A mysterious stranger named Rabin helped to free the power within her—a dark, ancient magic that should not exist.

Now, Zarya learns Rabin’s true identity. A warrior prince, born to rule, he is as deadly as he is beautiful. He’s also insufferable. Arrogant and superior, with dangerous secrets of his own.

Zarya wants nothing to do with him. Terrifying demons are gathering beyond the walls and Zarya’s friends are rushing to complete a ceremony that will protect the city. Her mind is fixed on saving her home and finding the origin of her magic.

But every discovery and every dream pulls her back to Rabin. Does an enchantment bind them, or is it pure desire? Will opening her heart give Zarya the power to turn back the demons, or will it let the darkness to devour her?

Realm Breaker (Realm Breaker, #1) by Victoria Aveyard

Save the world or end it.

A strange darkness is growing in the Ward. Even Corayne an-Amarat can feel it, tucked away in her small town at the edge of the sea.

Fate knocks on her door, in the form of a mythical immortal and a lethal assassin, who tell Corayne that she is the last of an ancient lineage—with the power to save the world from destruction.

Because a man who would burn kingdoms to the ground is raising an army unlike any seen before, bent on uprooting the foundations of the world. With poison in his heart and a stolen sword in his hand, he'll break the realm itself to claim it. And only Corayne can stop him.

Alongside an unlikely group of reluctant allies, Corayne finds herself on a desperate journey to complete an impossible task, with untold magic singing in her blood and the fate of the world on her shoulders.

Blade Breaker (Realm Breaker, #2) by Victoria Aveyard

The fate of the world rests on a blade's edge.

Fighting beside her band of unlikely companions, Corayne is learning to embrace her ancient lineage and wield her father's powerful sword.

But while she successfully closed one of the Spindles, her journey is far from over.

Queen Erida's army marches across Allward with her consort, Taristan, right beside them, opening more portals into nightmarish worlds, razing kingdoms to the ground.

Corayne has no choice but to assemble an army of her own if she's to save the realm as she knows it. But perilous lands await her and the companions, and they face assassins, otherworldly beasts, and tempestuous seas all as they rally a divided Ward to fight behind them.

But Taristan has unleashed an evil far more wicked than his corpse armies. Something deadly waits in the shadows; something that might consume the world before there's any hope for victory.

The Night Hunt by Alexandra Christo

Expected Publication Date: February 27, 2024

Change your fate—or kneel to it.

The Companions are scattered and hopeless, torn from each other. After Corayne barely escapes with her life, she must forge on alone, leaving her blade broken and her allies behind her. Her only consolation—Corayne now has Taristan's sword, the only Spindleblade left in existence. Without it, he can’t rip open any more Spindles. Without it, he can’t end the world.

But Taristan and Queen Erida will not be defeated so easily. Both will burn the world to bring down Corayne—and bring forth their demon god, What Waits, ready to claim the realm of Allward for his own.

In a final clash between kingdoms and gods, all must rise to fight—or be destroyed.

Everything has come to this. Prepare for a larger-than-life, unforgettable finale to the Realm Breaker series, where a shattered alliance must rise from the ashes to make their final stand against a ruthless enemy… and the demon god who looks to shroud the entire world in darkness.

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