“On The Smugglers’ Radar” is a feature for books that have caught our eye: books we have heard of via other bloggers, directly from publishers, and/or from our regular incursions into the Amazon jungle. Thus, the Smugglers’ Radar was born. Because we want far more books than we can possibly buy or review (what else is new?), we thought we would make the Smugglers’ Radar into a weekly feature – so YOU can tell us which books you have on your radar as well!
On Ana’s Radar:
I love Elana K. Arnold’s work and I am very excited about her new book:
You are alone in the woods, seen only by the unblinking yellow moon. Your hands are empty. You are nearly naked.
And the wolf is angry.
Since her grandmother became her caretaker when she was four years old, Bisou Martel has lived a quiet life in a little house in Seattle. She’s kept mostly to herself. She’s been good.
But then comes the night of homecoming, when she finds herself running for her life over roots and between trees, a fury of claws and teeth behind her.
A wolf attacks. Bisou fights back. A new moon rises. And with it, questions.
About the blood in Bisou’s past and on her hands as she stumbles home.
About broken boys and vicious wolves.
About girls lost in the woods—frightened, but not alone.
Wow, look at the cover and the TOC for this anthology with sixteen stories about “Black Girl Magic, resistance and hope”:
Elizabeth Acevedo, National Book Award-winning author of The Poet X
Amerie
Patrice Caldwell
Dhonielle Clayton, author of The Belles
Jalissa Corrie
Somaiya Daud, author of Mirage
Charlotte Nicole Davis, author of The Good Luck Girls
Alaya Dawn Johnson, author of The Summer Prince
Justina Ireland, author of Dread Nation
Danny Lore, author of Queen of Bad Dreams
L.L. McKinney, author of A Blade So Black
Danielle Paige, author of Dorothy Must Die
Rebecca Roanhorse, author of Trail of Lightning
Karen Strong, author of Just South of Home
Ashley Woodfolk, author of The Beauty That Remains
Ibi Zoboi, author of Pride
This MG book also looks super cute:
Coco meets Stranger Things with a hint of Ghostbusters in this action-packed supernatural fantasy.
For Lucely Luna, ghosts are more than just the family business.
Shortly before Halloween, Lucely and her best friend, Syd, cast a spell that accidentally awakens malicious spirits, wreaking havoc throughout St. Augustine. Together, they must join forces with Syd’s witch grandmother, Babette, and her tubby tabby, Chunk, to fight the haunting head-on and reverse the curse to save the town and Lucely’s firefly spirits before it’s too late.
With the family dynamics of Coco and action-packed adventure of Ghostbusters, Claribel A. Ortega delivers both a thrillingly spooky and delightfully sweet debut novel.
Huge Sarah Gailey fan here, especially after Magic for Liars. And look at her next book omg:
A sly, witchy, dark comedy about four teens whose magic goes wildly awry from Magic for Liars author Sarah Gailey, who Chuck Wendig calls an “author to watch”.
Keeping your magic a secret is hard. Being in love with your best friend is harder.
Alexis has always been able to rely on two things: her best friends, and the magic powers they all share. Their secret is what brought them together, and their love for each other is unshakeable—even when that love is complicated. Complicated by problems like jealousy, or insecurity, or lust. Or love.
That unshakeable, complicated love is one of the only things that doesn’t change on prom night.
When accidental magic goes sideways and a boy winds up dead, Alexis and her friends come together to try to right a terrible wrong. Their first attempt fails—and their second attempt fails even harder. Left with the remains of their failed spells and more consequences than anyone could have predicted, each of them must find a way to live with their part of the story.
The Degenerates sounds like an Ana-book through and through:
In the tradition of Girl, Interrupted, this fiery historical novel follows four young women in the early 20th century whose lives intersect when they are locked up by a world that took the poor, the disabled, the marginalized—and institutionalized them for life.
The Massachusetts School for the Feeble-Minded is not a happy place. The young women who are already there certainly don’t think so. Not Maxine, who is doing everything she can to protect her younger sister Rose in an institution where vicious attendants and bullying older girls treat them as the morons, imbeciles, and idiots the doctors have deemed them to be. Not Alice, either, who was left there when her brother couldn’t bring himself to support a sister with a club foot. And not London, who has just been dragged there from the best foster situation she’s ever had, thanks to one unexpected, life altering moment. Each girl is determined to change her fate, no matter what it takes.
On Thea’s Radar:
On this week’s edition of striking scifi covers, Fortuna looks pretty awesome.
The first book in a fast-paced space opera trilogy where a young woman leads a family of smugglers who become unwittingly involved in a galactic war.
There’s only one thing Scorpia Kaiser wants in the whole galaxy: to finally own Fortuna, the ship she pilots and the only home she’s ever known. But when it becomes clear her predecessor – the family matriarch – has been secretly dealing with various planetary governments, Scorpia realizes that her own family may be the reason the system’s five planets are headed toward a devastating war.
Lies, manipulation, and profit are all she’s ever been taught, but as she ascends into her new position, Scorpia finds she has the chance to change everything. Yet even as she takes on more responsibility for the family’s fate, fortune and influence, she is not at all sure she’s ready for it – even worse, she may not have the support of her crew, particularly her brother and rival, Corvus.
To stop the war, she’ll have to unite her family and unravel the chaos they’ve left in their wake.
Next up, the third book in the Arc of a Scythe series–I CANNOT WAIT TO READ THIS.
From New York Times bestselling author Neal Shusterman comes the thrilling conclusion to the Printz Honor–winning series Arc of a Scythe.
It’s been three years since Rowan and Citra disappeared; since Scythe Goddard came into power; since the Thunderhead closed itself off to everyone but Grayson Tolliver.
In this pulse-pounding conclusion to New York Times bestselling author Neal Shusterman’s Arc of a Scythe trilogy, constitutions are tested and old friends are brought back from the dead.
The sequel to Brandon Sanderson’s delightful Skyward now has a cover (another book I am eagerly anticipating):
The sequel to the New York Times bestseller Skyward!
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Reckoners series, Words of Radiance, the Mistborn trilogy, and the Stormlight Archive comes the second book in an epic series about a girl with a secret in a dangerous world at war for humanity’s future.
All her life, Spensa has dreamed of becoming a pilot. Of proving she’s a hero like her father. She made it to the sky, but the truths she learned about her father were crushing. The rumors of his cowardice are true–he deserted his flight during battle against the Krell. Worse, though, he turned against his team and attacked them.
Spensa is sure there’s more to the story. And she’s sure that whatever happened to her father in his starship could happen to her. When she made it outside the protective shell of her planet, she heard the stars–and it was terrifying. Everything Spensa has been taught about her world is a lie.
But Spensa also discovered a few other things about herself–and she’ll travel to the end of the galaxy to save humankind if she needs to.
I loved Django Wexler’s flintlock fantasy series, so am keen to check out this new one:
In the lower wards of Kahnzoka, the great port city of the Blessed Empire, eighteen-year-old ward boss Isoka comes to collect when there’s money owing. When her ability to access the Well of Combat is discovered by the Empire?an ability she should have declared and placed at His Imperial Majesty’s service?she’s sent on an impossible mission: steal Soliton, a legendary ghost ship?a ship from which no one has ever returned. If she fails, her sister’s life is forfeit.
This scifi thriller also has been getting a lot of praise:
Mission Commander Sally Jansen is Earth’s last astronaut–and last hope–in this gripping near-future thriller where a mission to make first contact becomes a terrifying struggle for survival in the depths of space.
Sally Jansen was NASA’s leading astronaut, until a mission to Mars ended in disaster. Haunted by her failure, she lives in quiet anonymity, convinced her days in space are over.
She’s wrong.
A large alien object has entered the solar system on a straight course toward Earth. It has made no attempt to communicate and is ignoring all incoming transmissions.
Out of time and out of options, NASA turns to Jansen. For all the dangers of the mission, it’s the shot at redemption she always longed for.
But as the object slowly begins to reveal its secrets, one thing becomes horribly clear: the future of humanity lies in Jansen’s hands.
And that’s it from us! What books do you have on your radar?
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