14 oct releases: sharing my birthday with them~

Welcome to the best month of the year! Just because it’s my birthday month, hehe. With October here, we are left with only three months of the year.

In October, we are finishing up some series including Kylie Lee Baker’s The Keeper of Night duology, Mia P. Manansala’s Tita Rosie’s Kitchen Mystery trilogy, Maggie Stiefvater’s Dreamer trilogy. Standalone to be released are A Scatter of Light by Malinda Lo, Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng, Princess of Souls by Alexandra Christo, Where The Lost Ones Go by Akemi Dawn Bowman, If You Could See the Sun by Ann Liang (debut), Dark Room Etiquette by Robin Roe, and Road of the Lost by Nafiza Azad. So many authors that I love!

A few authors are continuing their series as well. Adam Silvera is expanding the world of They Both Die at the End. I’m prepared to cry. S.A. Chakraborty’s Daevabad trilogy will welcome The River of Silver which is a collection of short stories in that world. Nghi Vo’s Into the Riverlands is coming out in October too.

Lastly, JOAN HE’S STRIKE THE ZITHER WILL BE HERE SOON. AND I HAVE AN ARC. MWHAHAHA.

Enjoy the list!

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the empress of time – kylie lee baker

duology: the keeper of night #2
October 4, 2022 by Inkyard Press
age range: young adult
genre: fantasy, romance
rep: japanese

Half British Reaper, half Japanese Shinigami Ren Scarborough is no longer the girl who was chased out of England—she is the Goddess of Death ruling Japan’s underworld. But her problems have never been greater. Her Shinigami see her as a foreigner on the throne. Her brother, Neven, is gone, lost in the deep darkness. And her fiancé, Hiro, has been killed by her own hand.

Then Ren receives the most troubling news yet—Reapers have been spotted in Japan, and it’s only a matter of time before Ivy, now Britain’s Death Goddess, comes to claim her revenge.

Ren’s last hope is to appeal to the god of storms and seas, who can turn the tides to send Ivy’s ship away from Japan’s shores. But he’ll help Ren only if she finds a sword lost thousands of years ago—an impossible demand.

Together with the moon god Tsukuyomi, who shares an uncanny resemblance to his brother Hiro, Ren ventures across the country in a race against time. As her journey thrusts her into the middle of scheming gods and dangerous Yokai demons, Ren will have to learn who she can truly trust—and the fate of Japan hangs in the balance.

🧃 Things ended quite sour between Ren and her brother in The Keeper of Night. Now that she is the Goddess of Death, maybe she can finally belong somewhere. But nope, of course things doesn’t go smoothly. I just want Ren to be happy, honestly.

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a scatter of light – malinda lo

standalone
October 4, 2022 by Dutton Books for Young Readers
age range: young adult
genre: historical fiction, romance
rep: LGBT

Aria Tang West was looking forward to a summer on Martha’s Vineyard with her best friends–one last round of sand and sun before college. But after a graduation party goes wrong, Aria’s parents exile her to California to stay with her grandmother, artist Joan West.Aria expects boredom, but what she finds is Steph Nichols, her grandmother’s gardener. Soon, Aria is second-guessing who she is and what she wants to be, and a summer that once seemed lost becomes unforgettable–for Aria, her family, and the working-class queer community Steph introduces her to. It’s the kind of summer that changes a life forever.

🧃 After reading Malinda Lo’s Last Night at the Telegraph Club, I decided to pay more attention to her future releases. Hence why A Scatter of Light is in this list!

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the first to die at the end – adam silvera

duology: death-cast #0
October 4, 2022 by HarperCollins
age range: young adult
genre: contemporary, romance
rep: LGBT

It’s the night before Death-Cast goes live, and there’s one question on everyone’s mind: Can Death-Cast actually predict when someone will die, or is it just an elaborate hoax?

Orion Pagan has waited years for someone to tell him that he’s going to die. He has a serious heart condition, and he signed up for Death-Cast so he could know what’s coming.

Valentino Prince is restarting his life in New York. He has a long and promising future ahead and he only registered for Death-Cast after his twin sister nearly died in a car accident.

Orion and Valentino cross paths in Times Square and immediately feel a deep connection. But when the first round of End Day calls goes out, their lives are changed forever—one of them receives a call, and the other doesn’t. Though neither boy is certain how the day will end, they know they want to spend it together…even if that means their goodbye will be heartbreaking.

🧃 Adam Silvera is going to make me cry once more, and I’m a willing party.

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blackmail and bibingka – mia p. manansala

trilogy: tita rosie’s kitchen mystery #3
October 4, 2022 by Berkley Books
age range: adult
genre: contemporary, romance, mystery
rep: Filipino

It’s Christmastime in Shady Palms, but things are far from jolly for Lila Macapagal. Sure, her new business, The Brew-ha Cafe, is looking to turn a profit in its first year. And yes, she’s taken the first step in a new romance with her good friend, Jae Park. But her cousin Ronnie is back in town after ghosting the family fifteen years ago, claiming that his recent purchase of a local winery shows that he’s back on his feet and ready to give back to the Shady Palms community. Tita Rosie is thrilled with the return of her prodigal son, but Lila knows that wherever Ronnie goes, trouble follows.

She’s soon proven right when Ronnie is accused of murder, and secrets and rumors surrounding her shady cousin and those involved with the winery start piling up. Now Lila has to put away years of resentment and distrust to prove her cousin’s innocence. He may be a jerk, but he’s still family. And there’s no way her flesh and blood could actually be a murderer…right?

🧃 Two mysteries, two murders, two books. We are at the last book in the Tita Rosie’s Kitchen Mystery trilogy. Ronnie is the next one accused of being a murderer and it’s up to Lila to figure out if her cousin is capable of killing someone.

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our missing hearts – celeste ng

standalone
October 4, 2022 by Penguin Press
age range: adult
genre: literary fiction

Twelve-year-old Bird Gardner lives a quiet existence with his loving but broken father, a former linguist who now shelves books in Harvard University’s library. Bird knows to not ask too many questions, stand out too much, or stray too far. For a decade, their lives have been governed by laws written to preserve “American culture” in the wake of years of economic instability and violence. To keep the peace and restore prosperity, the authorities are now allowed to relocate children of dissidents, especially those of Asian origin, and libraries have been forced to remove books seen as unpatriotic—including the work of Bird’s mother, Margaret, a Chinese American poet who left the family when he was nine years old.

Bird has grown up disavowing his mother and her poems; he doesn’t know her work or what happened to her, and he knows he shouldn’t wonder. But when he receives a mysterious letter containing only a cryptic drawing, he is drawn into a quest to find her. His journey will take him back to the many folktales she poured into his head as a child, through the ranks of an underground network of librarians, into the lives of the children who have been taken, and finally to New York City, where a new act of defiance may be the beginning of much-needed change.

🧃 It’s Celeste Ng.. So… Are you surprised?

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princess of souls – alexandra christo

standalone
October 11, 2022 by Feiwel & Friends
age range: young adult
genre: fantasy, romance, retelling

For sixteen years, Selestra Somniatis has been trapped in a castle on the Floating Mountain, preparing to take her mother’s place as King Seryth’s right hand. Tied by blood to steal souls for the immortal King of the Six Isles, the Somniatis Witch foretells the deaths of participants in the Festival of Predictions. To outrun your fate is to save your soul and steal the King’s immortality. But if you die, your soul is forfeit. And though thousands have tried, nobody has ever beaten death.

As a soldier in King Seryth’s army, Nox Laederic is an unlikely candidate for the Festival, but he has no plans to die at the hands of the King or his witches. His plan is more akin to violent revenge: steal the King’s immortality and kill the entirety of his court, starting with Selestra herself.

But when Selestra touches Nox in her very first prediction, she sees her own death alongside his–their fates are unmistakably intertwined, and Selestra is no longer safe in the only home she’s ever known. Nox and Selestra will have to enter a turbulent alliance in order to survive long enough to free the Six Isles from King Seryth’s clutches and escape the new fate that hunts them.

🧃 I’m ready for another Alexandra Christo’s book! Since Princess of Souls is Rapunzel-inspired YA fantasy, I’m even more excited.

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where the lost ones go – akemi dawn bowman

standalone
October 11, 2022 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Byr)
age range: middle grade
genre: romance, paranormal, contemporary
rep: LGBT, Japanese-American

Eliot is grieving Babung, her paternal grandmother who just passed away, and she feels like she’s the only one. She’s less than excited to move to her new house, which smells like lemons and deception, and is searching for a sign, any sign, that ghosts are real. Because if ghosts are real, it means she can find a way back to Babung.

When Eliot chases the promise of paranormal activity to the presumably haunted Honeyfield Hall, she finds her proof of spirits. But these ghosts are losing their memory, stuck between this world and the next, waiting to cross over. With the help of Hazel, the granddaughter of Honeyfield’s owner (and Eliot’s new crush), she attempts to uncover the mystery behind Honeyfield Hall and the ghosts residing within.

And as Eliot fits the pieces together, she may just be able to help the spirits remember their pasts, and hold on to her grandmother’s memory.

🧃 I love all of Akemi Dawn Bowman’s books that I’ve read and this is her first middle grade novel. Based on the synopsis, I know I’ll be crying.

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if you could see the sun – ann liang

standalone
October 11, 2022 by Inkyard Press
age range: young adult
genre: fantasy, romance
rep: Chinese-American

Alice Sun has always felt invisible at her elite Beijing international boarding school, where she’s the only scholarship student among China’s most rich and influential teens. But then she starts uncontrollably turning invisible—actually invisible.

When her parents drop the news that they can no longer afford her tuition, even with the scholarship, Alice hatches a plan to monetize her strange new power—she’ll discover the scandalous secrets her classmates want to know, for a price.

But as the tasks escalate from petty scandals to actual crimes, Alice must decide if it’s worth losing her conscience—or even her life.

🧃 Don’t really know much about it but I’m already anticipating her novel.

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dark room etiquette – robin roe

standalone
October 11, 2022 by HarperTeen
age range: young adult
genre: contemporary, mystery

Sixteen-year-old Sayers Wayte has everything—until he’s kidnapped by a man who tells him the privileged life he’s been living is based on a lie.

Trapped in a windowless room, without knowing why he’s been taken or how long the man plans to keep him shut away, Sayers faces a terrifying new reality. To survive, he must forget the world he once knew, and play the part his abductor has created for him.

But as time passes, the line between fact and fiction starts to blur, and Sayers begins to wonder if he can escape . . . before he loses himself.

🧃 A List of Cages absolutely broke me. Now that the author is finally releasing another book, I need to read it.

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the river of silver: tales from the daevabad trilogy – s.a. chakraborty

trilogy: the daevabad trilogy #0
October 11, 2022 by Harper Voyager
age range: young adult
genre: romance, fantasy

Now together in one place, these stories of Daevabad enrich a world already teeming with magic and wonder. Explore this magical kingdom, hidden from human eyes. A place where djinn live and thrive, fight and love. A world where princes question their power, and powerful demons can help you…or destroy you.

A prospective new queen joins a court whose lethal history may overwhelm her own political savvy…

An imprisoned royal from a fallen dynasty and a young woman wrenched from her home cross paths in an enchanted garden…

A pair of scouts stumble upon a secret in a cursed winter wood that will turn over their world…

🧃 Since I’m not done reading the actual trilogy, I’m not too sure if I can read this within the year. This collection of stories span across all the three books.

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greywaren – maggie stiefvater

trilogy: dreamer #3
October 18, 2022 by Scholastic Press
age range: young adult
genre: fantasy, romance
rep: LGBT

trilogy review | dreamer – maggie stiefvater

This is the story of the Lynch family.

Niall and Mór escaped their homeland for a new start, and lost themselves in what they found.

Declan has grown up as the responsible son, the responsible brother–only to find there is no way for him to keep his family safe.

Ronan has always lived on the edge between dreams and waking…but now that edge is gone, and he is falling.

Matthew has been the happy child, the brightest beam. But rebellion beckons, because it all feels like an illusion now.

This world was not made for such a family–a family with the power to make a world and break it. If they cannot save each other or themselves, we are all doomed.

🧃 I’ve been waiting for this ever since I was done with Call Down the Hawk. Finally, the last book will be out.

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road of the lost – nafiza azad

standalone
October 18, 2022 by Margaret K. McElderry Books
age range: young adult
genre: paranormal, fantasy

Even the most powerful magic can’t hide a secret forever.

Croi is a brownie, glamoured to be invisible to humans. Her life in the Wilde Forest is ordinary and her magic is weak—until the day that her guardian gives Croi a book about magick from the Otherworld, the world of the Higher Fae. Croi wakes the next morning with something pulling at her core, summoning her to the Otherworld. It’s a spell she cannot control or break.

Forced to leave her home, Croi begins a journey full of surprises…and dangers. For Croi is not a brownie at all but another creature entirely, enchanted to forget her true heritage. As Croi ventures beyond the forest, her brownie glamour begins to shift and change. Who is she really, who is summoning her, and what do they want? Croi will need every ounce of her newfound magic and her courage as she travels a treacherous path to find her true self and the place in the Otherworld where she belongs.

🧃 I’ve only read Nafiza Azad’s The Candle and the Flame novel so this will be fun!

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into the riverlands – nghi vo

series: the singing hills cycle #3
October 25, 2022 by Tordotcom
age range: adult
genre: fantasy
rep: LGBT

Wandering cleric Chih of the Singing Hills travels to the riverlands to record tales of the notorious near-immortal martial artists who haunt the region. On the road to Betony Docks, they fall in with a pair of young women far from home, and an older couple who are more than they seem. As Chih runs headlong into an ancient feud, they find themselves far more entangled in the history of the riverlands than they ever expected to be.

Accompanied by Almost Brilliant, a talking bird with an indelible memory, Chih confronts old legends and new dangers alike as they learn that every story—beautiful, ugly, kind, or cruel—bears more than one face.

🧃 This has extended from a novella to a series of novellas. The Empress of Salt and Fortune is my first book by the author, so watching it turn into a series is extra fun.

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strike the zither – joan he

duology: kingdom of three #1
October 25, 2022 by Roaring Brook Press
age range: young adult
genre: fantasy, romance, historical fiction, retelling
rep: Chinese

arc review | strike the zither – joan he

The year is 414 of the Xin Dynasty, and chaos abounds. A puppet empress is on the throne. The realm has fractured into three factions and three warlordesses hoping to claim the continent for themselves.

But Zephyr knows it’s no contest.

Orphaned at a young age, Zephyr took control of her fate by becoming the best strategist of the land and serving under Xin Ren, a warlordess whose loyalty to the empress is double-edged—while Ren’s honor draws Zephyr to her cause, it also jeopardizes their survival in a war where one must betray or be betrayed. When Zephyr is forced to infiltrate an enemy camp to keep Ren’s followers from being slaughtered, she encounters the enigmatic Crow, an opposing strategist who is finally her match. But there are more enemies than one—and not all of them are human.

🧃 Blessed with a Joan He’s novel this year so Strike the Zither will definitely be in this list.

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