Pub Day Picks // September 22, 2020

Happy Pub Day! Does it feel like September is just flying by this month? I’m not mad about it because next month is the start of Fall Fantasy! I have a lot of plans for the upcoming months and some of the books on this list might be showing up as well. What are you most excited about publishing today?

The Silvered Serpents by Roshani Chokshi

I’ve been waiting for this sequel to The Gilded Wolves all year long! I mean, I read The Gilded Wolves at the beginning of 2019 and anticipated Silvered Serpents to be published earlier this year, but I think with publishing issues and COVID, it got pushed back to the best season for fantasy books; the fall! I can’t wait to get back to 19th century Paris as the gang goes on another wild adventure.

Séverin and his team members might have successfully thwarted the Fallen House, but victory came at a terrible cost — one that still haunts all of them. Desperate to make amends, Séverin pursues a dangerous lead to find a long lost artifact rumored to grant its possessor the power of God.

Their hunt lures them far from Paris, and into the icy heart of Russia where crystalline ice animals stalk forgotten mansions, broken goddesses carry deadly secrets, and a string of unsolved murders makes the crew question whether an ancient myth is a myth after all.

As hidden secrets come to the light and the ghosts of the past catch up to them, the crew will discover new dimensions of themselves. But what they find out may lead them down paths they never imagined.

A tale of love and betrayal as the crew risks their lives for one last job.

Well Played by Jen Deluca

I absolutely loved Well Met and discuss the wench life with my friends on a regular basis. I’m so excited for the second book in this series and I’m so surprised. I’m mostly surprised because I never get this excited about romance novels being published. For this one, I make an exception.

Stacey is jolted when her friends Simon and Emily get engaged. She knew she was putting her life on hold when she stayed in Willow Creek to care for her sick mother, but it’s been years now, and even though Stacey loves spending her summers pouring drinks and flirting with patrons at the local Renaissance Faire, she wants more out of life. Stacey vows to have her life figured out by the time her friends get hitched at Faire next summer. Maybe she’ll even find The One.

When Stacey imagined “The One,” it never occurred to her that her summertime Faire fling, Dex MacLean, might fit the bill. While Dex is easy on the eyes onstage with his band The Dueling Kilts, Stacey has never felt an emotional connection with him. So when she receives a tender email from the typically monosyllabic hunk, she’s not sure what to make of it.

Faire returns to Willow Creek, and Stacey comes face-to-face with the man with whom she’s exchanged hundreds of online messages over the past nine months. To Stacey’s shock, it isn’t Dex—she’s been falling in love with a man she barely knows.

The Left Handed Booksellers of London by Garth Nix

I’ve only read Sabriel by Garth Nix, but it was really one of my favorite books of the year. I really loved the story and I couldn’t believe he was releasing a new book this year. This one isn’t about teenage necromancers, but it’s definitely something I want to check out!

In a slightly alternate London in 1983, Susan Arkshaw is looking for her father, a man she has never met. Crime boss Frank Thringley might be able to help her, but Susan doesn’t get time to ask Frank any questions before he is turned to dust by the prick of a silver hatpin in the hands of the outrageously attractive Merlin.

Merlin is a young left-handed bookseller (one of the fighting ones), who with the right-handed booksellers (the intellectual ones), are an extended family of magical beings who police the mythic and legendary Old World when it intrudes on the modern world, in addition to running several bookshops.

Susan’s search for her father begins with her mother’s possibly misremembered or misspelt surnames, a reading room ticket, and a silver cigarette case engraved with something that might be a coat of arms.

Merlin has a quest of his own, to find the Old World entity who used ordinary criminals to kill his mother. As he and his sister, the right-handed bookseller Vivien, tread in the path of a botched or covered-up police investigation from years past, they find this quest strangely overlaps with Susan’s. Who or what was her father? Susan, Merlin, and Vivien must find out, as the Old World erupts dangerously into the New.

Vampires Never Get Old edited by Zoraida Cordova and Natalie C Parker

What’s my favorite fantasy creature? Vampires, of course. When I heard about this vampire short story collection edited by Zoraida Cordova, I knew I had to get it. It publishes today, so that means it’ll be ready for reading during the spooky months. I would highly recommend checking out the list of authors who contributed to this collection. It’s like the famous YA authors who’s stories you can never get enough of. I love a good spooky vampire story! I may have already pre-ordered this one and waiting patiently for it to arrive!

In this delicious new collection, you’ll find stories about lurking vampires of social media, rebellious vampires hungry for more than just blood, eager vampires coming out―and going out for their first kill―and other bold, breathtaking, dangerous, dreamy, eerie, iconic, powerful creatures of the night.

Welcome to the evolution of the vampire―and a revolution on the page.

Vampires Never Get Old includes stories by authors both bestselling and acclaimed, including Samira Ahmed, Dhonielle Clayton, Zoraida Córdova and Natalie C. Parker, Tessa Gratton, Heidi Heilig, Julie Murphy, Mark Oshiro, Rebecca Roanhorse, Laura Ruby, Victoria “V. E.” Schwab, and Kayla Whaley.