Can't-Wait Wednesday: The Black Orb by Ewhan Kim, Upon a Starlit Tide by Kell Woods, & The Poorly Made and Other Things by Sam Rebelein

 

Can't-Wait is a weekly meme hosted by Wishful Endings that spotlights exciting upcoming releases that we can't wait to be released! 

The Black Orb by Ewhan Kim
Publication: February 4th, 2025
MIRA
Hardcover. 304 pages.
Pre-order: Amazon | Bookshop.org

From Goodreads:
"One evening in downtown Seoul, Jeong-su is smoking a cigarette outside when he sees something impossible: a huge black orb appears out of nowhere and sucks his neighbor inside. Jeong-su manages to get away, but the terrifying sphere can move through walls, so he’s sure he won’t be able to hide for long.

The orb soon begins consuming every person caught in its path, and no one knows how to stop it. Impervious to bullets and tanks, the orb splits and multiplies, chasing the hapless residents of Seoul out into the country and sparking a global crisis with widespread violence and looting. Jeong-su must rely on his wits as he makes the arduous journey in search of his elderly parents. But the strangest phases of this ever-expanding disaster are yet to come and Jeong-su will be forced to question everything he has taken for granted.

Dryly funny, propulsive and absurd, The Black Orb is terrifyingly prescient about the fragility of human civilization."

This sounds so weird and I'm totally here for it.

Upon a Starlit Tide by Kell Woods
Publication: February 18th, 2025
Tor 
Hardcover. 432 pages.
Pre-order: Amazon | Bookshop.org

From Goodreads:
"Saint-Malo, Brittany, 1758.
For Lucinde Leon, the youngest daughter of one of Saint-Malo's wealthiest ship-owners, the high walls of the city are more hindrance than haven. While her sisters are interested in securing advantageous marriages, Luce dreams of escaping her elegant but stifling home and joining a ship's crew. Only Samuel—Luce's best friend and an English smuggler—understands her longing for the sea, secretly teaching her to sail whenever she can sneak away. For Luce, the stolen time on the water with Samuel is precious.

One stormy morning, Luce's plans are blown off course when she rescues Morgan de Chatelaine, the youngest son of the most powerful ship-owner in Saint-Malo, from the sea. Immediately drawn to his charm and sense of adventure, she longs to attend the glittering ball held in honor of his safe return and begins to contemplate a different kind of future for herself.

But it is not only Luce's hopes at stake—the local fae are leaving Brittany and taking their magic with them, while the long-standing war with the English means Saint-Malo is always at risk of attack. As Luce is plunged into a world of magic, brutality, and seduction, secrets that have long been lost in the shadowy depths of the ocean begin to rise to the surface. The truth of her own power is growing brighter and brighter, shining like a sea-glass slipper.

Or the scales of a sea-maid's tail."

I enjoyed Woods' After the Forest and I'm really intrigued by the general setup of this one, so I'm looking forward to checking it out.

The Poorly Made and Other Things by Sam Rebelein
Publication: February 11th, 2025
William Morrow
Paperback. 288 pages.
Pre-order: Amazon | Bookshop.org

From Goodreads:
"There’s something wrong in Renfield County.

It’s in the water, the soil, the wood. But worst of all, it’s in the minds of the residents, slowly driving them mad. When Lawrence Renfield massacred his family and drew The Giant in his farmhouse with their blood, no one imagined the repercussions. At the very least, the bloodstained wood should have been set aflame, not chopped down and repurposed as furniture, décor, and heirlooms across the county. But that’s exactly what happened. Now regular people—like you and me—are sitting on… eating with… admiring… the cursed wood and reaping the consequences.

These are their stories.

In “My Name Is Ellie” a young girl uncovers disturbing secrets hiding in the walls of her beloved grandmother’s home. An unassuming box, built with reclaimed wood, connects a grieving widower with his late wife’s lingering spirit in “Hector Brim.” In “Detour” a father, desperate to return home, finds himself trapped in a dizzying maze, haunted by stories of lurking monsters that live off the remains of weary travelers.

Playing with the uncanny to explore themes of loneliness and grief, Sam Rebelein returns upstate to unravel the mysteries of Renfield. But regardless of what started the trouble, there’s one thing of which we can be for those living here, the nightmare is far from over."

I haven't read anything from this author yet so I'm unfamiliar with the setting of this book, but I'm hoping that's okay because this sounds so good! 

Can't-Wait Wednesday: The Garden by Nick Newman, Grave Empire by Richard Swan, Waiting for the Long Night Moon by Amanda Peters, & Boy by Nicole Galland

Can't-Wait is a weekly meme hosted by Wishful Endings that spotlights exciting upcoming releases that we can't wait to be released! 

February is absolutely packed with new releases, so today I'm sharing not two, not three, but four upcoming releases. Next week I'll return to my more usual amount of three. :)

The Garden by Nick Newman
Publication: February 18th, 2025
G.P. Putnam's Sons
Hardcover. 320 pages.
Pre-order: Amazon | Bookshop.org

From Goodreads:
"An eerie, hypnotic, darkly beautiful novel about two elderly sisters living alone at the edge of the world and how their lives unravel when their sanctum is breached, for fans of Piranesi and The Testaments.

In a place and time unknown, two elderly sisters live in a walled garden, secluded from the outside world. Evelyn and Lily have only ever known each other. What was before the garden, they have forgotten; what lies beyond it, they do not know. Each day is spent in languid service to their home: tending the bees, planting the crops, and dutifully following the instructions of the almanac written by their mother.

So when a nameless boy is found hiding in the boarded house at the center of their isolated grounds, their once-solitary lives are irrevocably disrupted. Who is he? Where did he come from? And most importantly, what does he want?

As suspicions gather and allegiances falter, Evelyn and Lily are forced to confront the dark truths about themselves, the garden, and the world as they’ve known it."

I was already sold by the Piranesi comp, but this sounds so intriguing and mysterious and I absolutely cannot wait to see what's going on with this one. I have an ARC that I'm hoping to get started on soon!

Grave Empire by Richard Swan
Publication: February 4th, 2025
Orbit
Paperback. 384 pages.
Pre-order: Amazon | Bookshop.org

From Goodreads:
"Blood once turned the wheels of empire. Now it is money.

A new age of exploration and innovation has dawned, and the Empire of the Wolf stands to take its place as the foremost power in the known world. Glory and riches await.

But dark days are coming. A mysterious plague has broken out in the pagan kingdoms to the north, while in the south, the Empire's proxy war in the lands of the wolfmen is weeks away from total collapse.

Worse still is the message brought to the Empress by two heretic monks, who claim to have lost contact with the spirits of the afterlife. The monks believe this is the start of an ancient prophecy heralding the end of days-the Great Silence.

It falls to Renata Rainer, a low-ranking ambassador to an enigmatic and vicious race of mermen, to seek answers from those who still practice the arcane arts. But with the road south beset by war and the Empire on the brink of supernatural catastrophe, soon there may not be a world left to save . . ."

I really enjoyed Richard Swan's Empire of the Wolf trilogy and I have been anxiously awaiting his new release!

Waiting for the Long Night Moon: Stories by Amanda Peters
Publication: February 11th, 2025
Harper Perennial
Paperback. 256 pages.
Pre-order: Amazon | Bookshop.org

From Goodreads:
"In her debut collection of short fiction, Amanda Peters describes the Indigenous experience from an astonishingly wide spectrum in time and place—from contact with the first European settlers to the forced removal of Indigenous children, to the present-day fight for the right to clean water.

In this intimate collection, Peters melds traditional storytelling with beautiful, spare prose to describe the dignity of the traditional way of life, the humiliations of systemic racism, and the resilient power to endure. A young man returns from residential school only to realize he can no longer communicate with his parents. As a water protector, a young woman finds purpose and healing on the front lines. An old man remembers his life as he patiently waits for death. And a young girl nervously dances in her first Mawi'omi. The collection also includes the story “The Berry Pickers," which inspired Peters' critically acclaimed novel of the same name, as well as the Indigenous Voices Award–nominated story “Pejipug (Winter Arrives)."

At times sad, sometimes disturbing but always redemptive, the stories in Waiting for the Long Night Moon will remind you that where there is grief there is also joy, where there is trauma there is resilience and, most importantly, there is power."

This sounds like a really powerful and thoughtful collection of stories, I'm hoping to have a chance to check it  out soon. 

Boy by Nicole Galland
Publication: February 25th, 2025
William Morrow
Hardcover. 352 pages.
Pre-order: Amazon | Bookshop.org

From Goodreads:
"From critically acclaimed author Nicole Galland, a vibrant and thought-provoking historical tale of love, political intrigue, and gender-swapping set in the theatre world of Elizabethan London.

Alexander “Sander” Cooke is the most celebrated “boy player” in the Chamberlain’s Men, William Shakespeare’s theatre company. Indeed, Sander’s androgynous beauty and deft portrayal of female roles have made him the toast of London, and his companionship is sought by noblewomen and -men alike. And yet, now at the height of his fame, he teeters on the cusp of adulthood, his future uncertain. Often, he wishes he could stop time and remain a boy forever.

Joan Buckler, Sander’s best friend, also has a dream. Though unschooled, she is whip-smart and fascinated by the snippets of natural philosophy to which she’s been exposed. And while she senses that Sander’s admiration for her is more than mere friendship, Joan’s true passion is knowledge, something that is nearly impossible for her to attain. As a woman, she has no place in the intellectual salons and cultural community of the day; only in disguise can she learn to her heart’s content.

Joan’s covert intellectual endeavors, coupled with Sander’s theatrical triumphs, attract the attention of none other than Francis Bacon: natural philosopher and trusted adviser to Queen Elizabeth. It is through their connection with Bacon—one of the greatest minds of their time—that their lives will be changed forever as they become embroiled in an intricate game of political intrigue that threatens their very survival.

Brimming with heart, curiosity, and rich historical detail, Boy offers an intimate glimpse of the moral complexities of a singular artistic era, and the roles we all choose to play on the world’s stage."

I am so intrigued by this story, and I believe it's based on a real person from history, Alexander Cooke, so I'm really eager to check this one out.

Can't-Wait... Tuesday?: Adrift in Currents Clean and Clear by Seanan McGuire, The Lotus Shoes by Jane Yang, & The Secrets of Underhill by Kali Wallace

      

Can't-Wait is a weekly meme hosted by Wishful Endings that spotlights exciting upcoming releases that we can't wait to be released! This meme is based off of Jill @ Breaking the Spine's Waiting on Wednesday meme.

Since tomorrow is Christmas Day for those who celebrate, I figured I'd go ahead and post my Can't-Wait Wednesday post today instead. I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season! :)

Adrift in Currents Clean and Clear (Wayward Children #10) by Seanan McGuire
Publication: January 7th, 2025
Tordotcom
Hardcover. 160 pages.
Pre-order: Amazon | Bookshop.org

From Goodreads:
"Giant turtles, impossible ships, and tidal rivers ridden by a Drowned girl in search of a family in the latest in the bestselling Hugo and Nebula Award-Winning Wayward Children series from Seanan McGuire.

Nadya had three mothers: the one who bore her, the country that poisoned her, and the one who adopted her.

Nadya never considered herself less than whole, not until her adoptive parents fitted her with a prosthetic arm against her will, seeking to replace the one she'd been missing from birth.

It was cumbersome; it was uncomfortable; it was wrong.

It wasn't her.

Frustrated and unable to express why, Nadya began to wander, until the day she fell through a door into Belyrreka, the Land Beneath the Lake--and found herself in a world of water, filled with child-eating amphibians, majestic giant turtles, and impossible ships that sailed as happily beneath the surface as on top. In Belyrreka, she found herself understood for who she was: a Drowned Girl, who had made her way to her real home, accepted by the river and its people.

But even in Belyrreka, there are dangers, and trials, and Nadya would soon find herself fighting to keep hold of everything she had come to treasure."

I'm honestly still a bit behind on catching up with this series, but I'm always excited to hear about a new one coming out. I'm also a little surprised sometimes that it's still going, but I'm curious to see what else McGuire has up her sleeve.

The Lotus Shoes by Jane Yang
Publication: January 28th, 2025
Sphere
Hardcover. 400 pages.
Pre-order: Amazon | Bookshop.org

From Goodreads:
"An astonishing story set in 1800s China. Little Flower is sold into slavery, and Linjing into marriage . . .

As a child, Little Flower is sold to Linjing's wealthy family to become a muizai. In a fit of childish jealousy over her new handmaiden's ladylike bound feet and talent for embroidery, Linjing ensures Little Flower can never leave her to ascend in society.

Despite their starkly different places in the Fong household, over the years the two girls must work together to secure both their futures through Linjing's marriage. As the two grow up, they are by turns bitter rivals and tentative friends.

Until scandal strikes the family, and Linjing and Little Flower's lives are unexpectedly thrown into chaos. Linjing's fall from grace could be an opportunity for Little Flower - but will their intertwined fates lead to triumph, or tragedy for them both?"

I'm always on the lookout for some great new historical fiction and this one sounds really promising!

The Secrets of Underhill by Kali Wallace
Publication: January 28th, 2025
Quirk Books
Hardcover. 320 pages.
Pre-order: Amazon | Bookshop.org

From Goodreads:
"This immersive fantasy adventure combines vivid world-building with timely themes of environmentalism is perfect for middle grade readers of Kelly Barnhill and Jessica Townsend.

Nick Sixsmith has spent her whole life on the road. The daughter of a traveling arborist, she and her mother move from town to town, caring for the ironwood groves the communities rely upon. When a dangerous blight takes hold of these magical trees, they must journey to the city of Mistwood—her mother’s hometown—for answers.

Nick can’t wait to explore the prosperous city of Mistwood and all it has to the bustling markets and workshops, neighborhoods built under a roaring waterfall, and the vast ancestral grove of ironwood trees. But dark secrets simmer beneath the surface as people start to disappear, and tensions rise in the city.

As the mystery grows, Nick and her new friends must follow the trail where it leads underground, to a strange, enchanting world called Underhill. Only then, among the roots of ancestral grove, will Nick find a way to save her new home and the ironwood trees."

I've only had a chance to read Kali Wallace's adult sci-fi/horror so far, and I'm really excited to finally check out some of her middle grade work because I do love some great middle grade.

Can't-Wait Wednesday: Lightfall by Ed Crocker, We Do Not Part by Han Kang, & Voice Like a Hyacinth by Mallory Pearson

      

Can't-Wait is a weekly meme hosted by Wishful Endings that spotlights exciting upcoming releases that we can't wait to be released! This meme is based off of Jill @ Breaking the Spine's Waiting on Wednesday meme.

Lightfall by Ed Crocker
Publication: January 14th, 2025
St. Martin's Press
Hardcover. 384 pages.
Pre-order: Amazon | Bookshop.org

From Goodreads:
"No humans here. Just immortals: their politics, their feuds—and their long buried secrets.

For centuries, vampires freely roamed the land until the Grays came out of nowhere, wiping out half the population in a night. The survivors fled to the last vampire city of First Light, where the rules are simple. If you’re poor, you drink weak blood. If you’re nobility, you get the good stuff. And you can never, ever leave.

Palace maid Sam has had enough of these rules, and she’s definitely had enough of cleaning the bedpans of the lords who enforce them. When the son of the city’s ruler is murdered and she finds the only clue to his death, she seizes the chance to blackmail her way into a better class and better blood. She falls in with the Leeches, a group of rebel maids who rein in the worst of the Lords. Soon she’s in league with a sorcerer whose deductive skills make up for his lack of magic, a deadly werewolf assassin and a countess who knows a city’s worth of secrets.

There’s just one problem. What began as a murder investigation has uncovered a vast conspiracy by the ruling elite, and now Sam must find the truth before she becomes another victim. If she can avoid getting murdered, she might just live forever."

I have an ARC that I've just started getting into and it's been super promising, I can't wait to keep reading!

Voice Like a Hyacinth by Mallory Pearson
Publication: February 1st, 2025
47North
Paperback. 367 pages.
Pre-order: Amazon | Bookshop.org

From Goodreads:
"Five young women eager for success rely on the unspeakable to make their dreams come true in a chilling novel about martyrdom, ritual, and obsession by the author of We Ate the Dark.

Art student Jo Kozak and her fellow classmates and best friends, Caroline, Finch, Amrita, and Saz, are one another’s muses—so close they have their own language and so devoted to the craft that they’ll do anything to keep their inspiration alive. Even if it means naively resorting to the occult to unlock their creativity and to curse their esteemed, if notoriously creepy, professor. They soon learn the horrible price to be paid for such a transgressive ritual.

In its violent aftermath, things are changing. Jo is feeling unnervingly haunted by something inexplicable. Their paintings, once prodigious and full of life, are growing dark and unhealthy. And their journey together—as women, students, and artists—is starting to crumble.

To right the wrong they’ve done, these five desperate friends will take their obsession a step too far. When that happens, there may be no turning back."

I'm really intrigued by this premise–I'm always up for something involving a group of friends/people that sounds a little bit messy and complicated. 

We Do Not Part by Han Kang
Publication: January 21st, 2025
Hogarth
Hardcover. 272 pages.
Pre-order: Amazon | Bookshop.org

From Goodreads:
"Han Kang’s most revelatory book since The Vegetarian, We Do Not Part tells the story of a friendship between two women while powerfully reckoning with a hidden chapter of Korean history.

One winter morning, Kyungha receives an urgent message from her friend Inseon to visit her at a hospital in Seoul. Inseon has injured herself in an accident, and she begs Kyungha to return to Jeju Island, where she lives, to save her beloved pet—a white bird called Ama.

A snowstorm hits the island when Kyungha arrives. She must reach Inseon’s house at all costs, but the icy wind and squalls slow her down as night begins to fall. She wonders if she will arrive in time to save the animal—or even survive the terrible cold that envelops her with every step. Lost in a world of snow, she doesn't yet suspect the vertiginous plunge into the darkness that awaits her at her friend's house.

Blurring the boundaries between dream and reality, We Do Not Part powerfully illuminates a forgotten chapter in Korean history, buried for decades—bringing to light the lost voices of the past to save them from oblivion. Both a hymn to an enduring friendship and an argument for remembering,it is the story of profound love in the face of unspeakable violence—and a celebration of life, however fragile it might be."

I've actually already read an ARC of this and thought it was a very thoughtful and occasionally heavy read that I think any Han Kang fan would enjoy. 

Can't-Wait Wednesday: All the Water in the World by Eiren Caffall, Realm of Ice and Sky by Buddy Levy, & The Devourer by Alison Ames

     

Can't-Wait is a weekly meme hosted by Wishful Endings that spotlights exciting upcoming releases that we can't wait to be released! This meme is based off of Jill @ Breaking the Spine's Waiting on Wednesday meme.

All the Water in the World by Eiren Caffall
Publication: January 7th, 2025
St. Martin's Press
Hardcover. 304 pages.
Pre-order: Amazon | Bookshop.org

From Goodreads:
"In the tradition of Station Eleven, a literary thriller set partly on the roof of New York’s Museum of Natural History in a flooded future.

All the Water in the World is told in the voice of a girl gifted with a deep feeling for water. In the years after the glaciers melt, Nonie, her older sister and her parents and their researcher friends have stayed behind in an almost deserted New York City, creating a settlement on the roof of the American Museum of Natural History. The rule: Take from the exhibits only in dire need. They hunt and grow their food in Central Park as they work to save the collections of human history and science. When a superstorm breaches the city’s flood walls, Nonie and her family must escape north on the Hudson. They carry with them a book that holds their records of the lost collections. Racing on the swollen river towards what may be safety, they encounter communities that have adapted in very different and sometimes frightening ways to the new reality. But they are determined to find a way to make a new world that honors all they've saved.

Inspired by the stories of the curators in Iraq and Leningrad who worked to protect their collections from war, All the Water in the World is both a meditation on what we save from collapse and an adventure story—with danger, storms, and a fight for survival. In the spirit of From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler and Parable of the Sower, this wild journey offers the hope that what matters most – love and work, community and knowledge – will survive."

I tend to be really interested in books with these climate fiction/dystopian-esque premises, and this one is no exception. I'm especially intrigued by the angle of being inspired by curators who tried to protect their collection from war in the real. Can't wait to read this one!

Realm of Ice and Sky by Buddy Levy
Publication: January 28th, 2025
St. Martin's Press
Hardcover. 384 pages.
Pre-order: Amazon | Bookshop.org

From Goodreads:
"National Outdoor Book Award-winning author Buddy Levy's thrilling narrative of polar exploration via airship―and the men who sacrificed everything to make history.

Arctic explorer and American visionary Walter Wellman pioneered both polar and trans-Atlantic airship aviation, making history’s first attempts at each. Wellman has been cast as a self-promoting egomaniac known mostly for his catastrophic failures. Instead he was a courageous innovator who pushed the boundaries of polar exploration and paved the way for the ultimate conquest of the North Pole―which would be achieved not by dogsled or airplane, but by airship.

American explorer Dr. Frederick Cook was the first to claim he made it to the North Pole in 1908. A year later, so did American Robert Peary, but both Cook’s and Peary’s claims had been seriously questioned. There was enough doubt that Norwegian explorer extraordinaire Roald Amundsen―who’d made history and a name for himself by being first to sail through the Northwest Passage and first man to the South Pole―picked up where Walter Wellman left off, attempting to fly to the North Pole by airship. He would go in the Norge, designed by Italian aeronautical engineer Umberto Nobile. The 350-foot Norge flew over the North Pole on May 12, 1926, and Amundsen was able to accurately record and verify their exact location.

However, the engineer Nobile felt slighted by Amundsen. Two years later, Nobile returned, this time in the Italia, backed by Prime Minister Benito Mussolini. This was an Italian enterprise, and Nobile intended to win back the global accolades and reputation he believed Amundsen had stripped from him. The journey ended in disaster, death, and accusations of cannibalism, launching one of the great rescue operations the world had ever seen.

Realm of Ice and Sky is the riveting tale of the men who first flew the most advanced technological airships of their time to the top of the world, risking and even giving their lives for science, country, and polar immortality."

I've been working my way through an ARC of this and I'm really enjoying it so far! I've read my fair share of Arctic and Antarctic explorations and adventures (which is one of my top nonfiction interests), but I'd read to read one that combined both Arctic exploration and airships and air travel, so this has been fascinating. I briefly read about Amundsen's experiences in a previous book I read about him, but I'm excited about the focus on airships in this book. 

The Devourer by Alison Ames
Publication: January 7th, 2025
Page Street YA
Hardcover. 400 pages.
Pre-order: Amazon | Bookshop.org

From Goodreads:
"When Adra Dantes’ half-brother Cameron attacks their father and robs him of a priceless treasure map, he leaves him a shell of the pirate captain he once was. Now Adra’s only aim in life is to kill Cameron, retrieve her father's map, and claim the treasure herself.

But her plans are thwarted. A sudden surplus of magic in the world is causing ancient sea monsters to awaken. Worse yet, Adra discovers that the ship she's been chasing for almost a year now is captained by a girl who’s been impersonating Cameron, while Cameron himself is missing.

The two pirate captains will have to work together if they are to find Cameron, but before they can do so, they must vanquish the beast―known as The Devourer―that is sinking ships and causing so much fear. Adra will have to descend leagues beneath the sea to the creature’s lair to strike a deal with her, but she’ll discover she isn’t the only one looking for her brother―and what he stole."

I'm honestly captivated by this cover and love it so much. I'm just as intrigued by the premise of this one and can't wait to check it out!