Hello hello! Was it just me or did February last like 3 days!?! I managed to read 7 books last month and they were all excellent reads. However, there were 3 that really stood out to me. Two were buddy reads I did with Leah and Susan and the third a sequel to one of my most loved books last year. The below are all fantasy, but a mix between epic and urban, all filled with folklore/mythology. One shockingly brutal, one adventure and romance filled and the other made me laugh out loud far too often whilst I was at work. I can see all of these books making my ‘favourites of the year’ post. Did you have a favourite read last month? Or like me do you struggle to just pick one? Let me know in the comments.

Jade War

In Jade War, the sequel to the World Fantasy Award-winning novel Jade City, the Kaul siblings battle rival clans for honor and control over an Asia-inspired fantasy metropolis.

On the island of Kekon, the Kaul family is locked in a violent feud for control of the capital city and the supply of magical jade that endows trained Green Bone warriors with supernatural powers they alone have possessed for hundreds of years.

Beyond Kekon’s borders, war is brewing. Powerful foreign governments and mercenary criminal kingpins alike turn their eyes on the island nation. Jade, Kekon’s most prized resource, could make them rich – or give them the edge they’d need to topple their rivals.

Faced with threats on all sides, the Kaul family is forced to form new and dangerous alliances, confront enemies in the darkest streets and the tallest office towers, and put honor aside in order to do whatever it takes to ensure their own survival – and that of all the Green Bones of Kekon.

Favourite Quotes

“The clan is my blood and the Pillar is its master,” she whispered. “I have a lot of regrets in life, but those oaths aren’t one of them.”

“We women claw for every inch we gain in this world…”

“My grandfather taught me that if a friend asks for your forgiveness, you should always give it. […] He also taught me that if you have to give it again, then they weren’t a friend to begin with.”

We Free the Stars

The battle on Sharr is over. The dark forest has fallen. Altair may be captive, but Zafira, Nasir, and Kifah are bound for Sultan’s Keep, determined to finish the plan he set in motion: restoring the hearts of the Sisters of Old to the minarets of each caliphate, and finally returning magic to all of Arawiya. But they are low on resources and allies alike, and the kingdom teems with fear of the Lion of the Night’s return.

As the zumra plots to overthrow the kingdom’s darkest threat, Nasir fights to command the magic in his blood. He must learn to hone his power into a weapon, to wield not only against the Lion but against his father, trapped under the Lion’s control. Zafira battles a very different darkness festering in her through her bond with the Jawarat—a darkness that hums with voices, pushing her to the brink of her sanity and to the edge of a chaos she dare not unleash. In spite of the darkness enclosing ever faster, Nasir and Zafira find themselves falling into a love they can’t stand to lose…but time is running out to achieve their ends, and if order is to be restored, drastic sacrifices will have to be made.

Favourite Quotes.

“The world has no right sitting on your shoulders, yet you’ve given it more than you will ever owe,” Lana whispered. “You’ve done for it what a sultan would require a throne, a crown, and a thousand men to accomplish.”

“We’re a zumra. We hunted the flame together, found the light in the darkness, but we were far from done, laa? Now we unleash it. We free the stars, shatter the darkness holding us captive, and return it to the world of splendour it once was.”

He didn’t want to be another moment stolen from a thousand. He wanted every sunrise and every crescent moon. He wanted to be the reason for every rare blush, the cause of every breathless sigh.”

A Dark and Hollow Star

The “ironborn” half-fae outcast of her royal fae family.
A tempestuous Fury, exiled to earth from the Immortal Realm and hellbent on revenge.
A dutiful fae prince, determined to earn his place on the throne.
The prince’s brooding guardian, burdened with a terrible secret.

For centuries, the Eight Courts of Folk have lived among us, concealed by magic and bound by law to do no harm to humans. This arrangement has long kept peace in the Courts—until a series of gruesome and ritualistic murders rocks the city of Toronto and threatens to expose faeries to the human world.

Four queer teens, each who hold a key piece of the truth behind these murders, must form a tenuous alliance in their effort to track down the mysterious killer behind these crimes. If they fail, they risk the destruction of the faerie and human worlds alike. If that’s not bad enough, there’s a war brewing between the Mortal and Immortal Realms, and one of these teens is destined to tip the scales. The only question is: which way?

Wish them luck. They’re going to need it.

Favourite Quotes

“Forget that you loved me, if you must, but please… do not forget that you loved at all, and do not forget you loved so fiercely it made you the best of your name.”

“Bye, Cel. Thanks for walking me from school.’ ‘Bye, Arlo! If you don’t call me tonight, I’ll just assume you’ve been murdered, shear off all my hair in mourning, and write lengthy poetry immortalising that one time you beat me in Mario Kart.”

“Aurelian stood so abruptly that the conversation died, all eyes on him whilst he stared at the field of panels. ‘Psst.’ Nausicaa tugged on one of the legs of his pants. ‘What do your fae eyes see, Legolas?’ Paying no attention to Nausicaa, he lifted a hand to point at the panels and warned, ‘We’re about to have company.”