Chiara Reads

Winter’s Orbit by Everina Maxwell

Title: Winter’s Orbit

Author: Everina Maxwell

Genre: Science Fiction

Year: 2021

Kiem is a prince of Iskat, so far down the line of succession that his most important jobs are appearing at charity events and keeping out of trouble – not necessarily in this order.
Jainan is a count of Thea, previously married to prince Taam and recently widowed, and he needs to tie a new connection to the crown quickly in order to sedate the unrest on his own planet and secure the alliance with Iskat.

But when it comes to light that Taam’s death might not have been an accident, the newly married couple has to join forces to face the imperial court, a possible murder, and their growing feelings for one another.

Reading the Booker Prize Winners (5): G. by John Berger

Title: G.

Author: John Berger

Genre: Historical Fiction

Year: 1972

G. is the story of a modern Don Juan, an account of a young man’s sexual career during the first years of the last century, on the backdrop of a turbulent period in Italian history.
Through each woman he seduces, G. reveals the truth of the libertine’s condition: his impossibility to find contentedness, and his growing loneliness.

The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern

Title: The Starless Sea

Author: Erin Morgenstern

Genre: Fantasy

Year: 2019

Far beneath the surface of the earth, the Starless Sea awaits those who can open the right doors. Its harbours are home to a labyrinthine series of tunnels connecting all kinds of rooms, all of them filled with stories waiting to be found.

When Zachary finds an event from his own childhood written in an old, mysterious book from his campus library, he is determined to find out what it means. The symbols on the spine of the book – a bee, a key, and a sword – lead him to two fascinating strangers: Mirabel, a pink-haired painter, and Dorian, a man with a voice perfect for storytelling.

The Time of Contempt by Andrzej Sapkowski

Title: The Time of Contempt

Series: The Witcher #2

Author: Andrzej Sapkowski

Genre: Fantasy

Year: 1995

Yennefer and Ciri are travelling toward the Wizard’s Council, while Geralt is trying to figure out who are the people still chasing Ciri even after word has spread that the Lion Cub of Cintra has died.
War ravages the country, alliances shift and change, and when a coup threatens the Wizard’s Guild our protagonists are split apart, left for dead… or lost.

Don’t Tell a Soul by Kirsten Miller

Title: Don’t Tell a Soul

Author: Kirsten Miller

Genre: Horror, Mystery

Year: 2021

In the dark, it made no difference if my eyes were open or shut.

Bram needs to get away from her life and the things that happened in her past. When the occasion presents itself, she leaves the city and goes to Louth, a small town where his uncle James is restoring an ancient manor in the hopes of making a hotel out of it.

But James is haunted by his own ghosts since the fire that killed his wife and destroyed half of his lovingly renovated manor. There are also other ghosts, or so the rumours say: they are called the Dead Girls, a list of young women who have disappeared after staying at the manor Bram calls home. But the locals are not too friendly with outsiders, and the more she investigates the past of these women, the more Bram start to fear she will be the next one.

Hall of Smoke by H.M. Long

Title: Hall of Smoke

Author: H.M. Long

Genre: Fantasy

Year: 2021

Hessa is an Eangi, a warrior priestess of Eang, the goddess of war. Exiled from her temple for failing to kill a man as instructed by her goddess, she is trying to atone for her sin when her village is razed by the enemy. As the last priestess alive she vows to protect her people while they are taken into slavery, and win back her goddess’s favour, so that she can be reunited with her loved ones in the High Halls after death.
But the only way to do that is to find the man she was supposed to kill and complete the task the goddess has assigned to her.

Travelling in a world torn by invaders to the south and refugees from the north, she navigates unlikely friends and deceitful deities, old gods and new ones, all vying for power. With her faith wavering, Hessa will realise that far more than her place in the High Halls is at stake; ancient beings are stirring, ready to walk the earth once more.

Remote Control by Nnedi Okorafor

Title: Remote Control

Author: Nnedi Okorafor

Genre: Science Fiction

Year: 2021

In Sankofa’s years on the road, she’d learned that people were complicated. They wore masks and guises to protect or hide their real selves. They reinvented themselves. They destroyed themselves. They built on themselves.

The day Fatima forgot her name, everyone in her town died a mysterious death. Since then she’s been known with the name Sankofa, a name that doesn’t mean anything to anyone but her.
Everywhere she goes, death follows; it’s not by chance that rumours say death adopted her. Followed by her fox companion, she walks on, searching for the one thing that started it all, in the hopes of understanding what happened to her and all the people she loved.

January 2021 wrap-up

The first month of the new year is already over, my life is kind of a mess right now, but somehow I completed eight books this month and considering that at least one of them was a proper brick, I’m pretty happy with that. Most of them are, as usual, fantasy, and three were new releases. So let’s get into them!

The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan

Title: The Eye of the World

Series: The Wheel of Time #1

Author: Robert Jordan

Genre: Fantasy

Year: 1990

The Wheel of Time turns and Ages come and go, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth returns again. In the Third Age, and Age of Prophecy, the World and Time themselves hang in the balance. What was, what will be, and what is, may yet fall under the Shadow.

Rand Al’Thor knows little of the world outside of the Two Rivers, where he tends sheep with his father Tam. Until the eve of the Winternight Festival, when Trollocs and Fades attack his village, and he’s forced to leave together with his closest friends in a flight that might save their lives, or deliver them into the clutches of a different kind of danger.

Across the Green Grass Fields by Seanan McGuire

Title: Across the Green Grass Fields

Series: Wayward Children #6

Author: Seanan McGuire

Genre: Fantasy

Year: 2021

Regan is a completely normal girl. She has a loving family, a best friend, and she loves horses.
But then one day she steps through a door that asks her to “be sure” and finds herself in a world populated by centaurs, unicorns, kelpies and other magical equines, a world where human is synonym with hero. But not everyone feels that a hero is needed right now…