Hello all and happy new year! I thought I would kick-off the first week of the year with a brief list of some of my own personally Most-Anticipated Books for the start of 2023. I keep a pretty extensive list throughout the year, but because my time and my budget is very finite, I usually only end up reading a very small fraction of all the new releases that catch my attention. I won’t share the whole current list here, but I will share a few of the books that are releasing January and February of this year that I am excited about, and which you folks might find interesting as well.

(A few notes: I have these listed in release date order, and I include title, author, release date, genre, and publisher. Most of them are fantasy/SF because that’s mostly what I read, but there are some other things mixed in. I would also like to point out that anything from HarperCollins, while I am excited about them, I will probably not actually buy and/or review until the strike is resolved.)

JANUARY RELEASES:

The Daughters of Izdihar by Hadeer Elsbai: releases Jan 10 (HarperCollins), this is an Egyptian-inspired fantasy, with a sapphic romantic subplot, and I am so excited for this one. It doesn’t hurt that the cover is absolutely gorgeous.

Phaedra by Laura Shepperson: releases Jan 10 (Penguin Random House), this one is a feminist retelling of the Greek myth of Phaedra, the sister of the Minotaur. This one is, by all accounts, unflinching and incisive. And I love me a good feminist retelling.

The Written World and the Unwritten World by Italo Calvino: releases Jan 17 (HarperCollins), this is a nonfiction collection of essays by the brilliant amazing incomparable Italo Calvino that will discuss his thoughts on literature and writing. Italo Calvino, author of such masterpieces as Invisible Cities (1972) and If on a winter’s night a traveler (1979), is one of my favorites and I am elated to have this previously-untranslated collection coming out!

Keeper’s Six by Kate Elliott: releases Jan 17 (Macmillan), this short fantasy novel features a bad-ass world-hopping mother who gets her old adventuring group back together to rescue her adult son who has been kidnapped by an old enemy. Kate Elliott has been a big name in SFF for years, but I only really got to know her work with Unconquerable Sun in 2020. However, I have since then become a devotee, and will buy anything she cares to release.

Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson: releases Jan 17 (HarperCollins), this one is a new murdery mystery about a man who writes mystery-writing how-to books and is an expert in golden age mystery novels, who must put all his knowledge to the test when he goes to a ski resort for a family reunion and everyone starts dying around him. This one just sounds like a ton of fun, and I love the prospect of a modern mystery that incorporates send-ups to the golden age (if you loved the movies Knives Out and Glass Onion you will probably like this book).

The Terraformers by Annalee Newitz: releases Jan 31 (Macmillan), Annalee Newitz is a phenomenal sf writer, who imagines some really fascinating near-future and far-future versions of the world. This new book from her will look at terraforming, eco-systems, and our hopes for the future. I’m really looking forward to this one.

FEBRUARY RELEASES:

Victory City by Salman Rushdie: releases Feb 7 (Penguin Random House), so, I mean, it’s SALMAN RUSHDIE, do you even need to know more than that? As with all his works, Victory City is historical fantasy/magical realism. It will, no doubt, be about India, and history, and the world, and the future, and everything in between. It’s about a woman who creates her own personal empire with the force of her imagination.

The Last Tale of the Flower Bride by Roshani Chokshi: releases Feb 14 (HarperCollins), this is the adult fantasy debut from a loved and respected YA writer. This book is a gothic romantic fantasy/fairy tale about a marriage falling apart among the secrets of the past.

Arch-Conspirator by Veronica Roth: releases Feb 21 (Macmillan), Veronica Roth has been on my TBR list for ages, and I still have not gotten around to picking up any of her work. But this book might finally change that because it sounds amazing. It’s a dystopic science fiction retelling of the Greek tragedy Antigone. If that doesn’t grab your attention, I don’t know what to do with you.

The Magician’s Daughter by H.G. Parry: releases Feb 21 (Hachette), I first heard about this book about a year ago when an author I follow on Twitter was talking about reading an early ARC, and it just sounds precisely to my taste. It’s a historical fantasy romance about an orphan from a secret magical island off the coast of Ireland, who must come to London to protect her home and her guardian. I am so stoked for this one!

Enchantment: Awakening to Wonder in an Anxious Age by Katherine May: releases 28 Feb (Penguin Random House), this nonfiction book from the author of Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times, is pretty much exactly what the title says it is. It discusses the anxiety, fatigue, and trauma of our times, and looks to the beauty and wonder of the natural world for its restorative power.

The Crane Husband by Kelly Barnhill: releases Feb 28 (Macmillan), this novella, from the author of The Girl Who Drank the Moon, is a dark horror/fantasy re-imagining of the old Japanese folktale “The Crane Wife.” I did mention I love myth/fairytale retellings, right? And it’s a Japanese folktale! Call me sold!

Liar City by Allie Therin: releases Feb 28 (Carina Press), I wrote before on this blog about Allie Therin’s previous work, The Magic in Manhattan trilogy — a 1920s-set historical fantasy romance that I am ABSOLUTELY ENAMORED with. This is something of a different take than her previous work, taking place in contemporary Seattle, with an empath who works a police consultant and is pulled into a case with the FBI. At this point I will buy anything Allie Therin sells me. Hell, I’d probably follow her to Mount Doom if she asked me.