I have one word.
HOW?
How is it already October? I know 2020 has been one giant freaking time warp but come on.
We’re wrapping up a year of amazing releases – seriously, so many – and yet, we still have 3 months left. I don’t even want to think ahout the sheer amount of money I’ve spent on books this year, but I don’t regret it. If there were ever a year to buy books galore, 2020 is it.
So, here’s my final Quarterly Anticipated Reads list of 2020. Let me know if I left anything off it that you think should be on my radar! I struggled to find Dec release – so either not many exist, or lists just aren’t comprehensive yet.
OCTOBER:
Broken Souls (Of Blood and Fury #1) – Toni Miranda Jones
Release Date: October 5, 2020
Would you disrupt the balance of the universe to avenge your family?
Colette doesn’t have time for high school games. She doesn’t have time for her best friend’s schoolyard crush on her. She doesn’t have time for her brother’s overprotective behavior. And she certainly doesn’t have time for the new guy in her class, no matter how hypnotizing his eyes might be.
Three months ago, Colette Belrose was murdered.
Colette relives the fire every day. She can still feel the ropes that tore into her wrists as she fought to get free. She can still taste the smoke that infected her lungs and choked her. She can still smell her flesh burning as the flames consumed her. Worst of all, she can still hear the sound of her parents screams as they burned alive beside her.
Three months ago, Colette Belrose was brought back to life.
Thought only to be a myth, furies are reborn to protect the innocent from the same fate that they once suffered. They only have one rule: they must not hunt the ones who killed them no matter the circumstance.
Cursed with an insatiable thirst for vengeance and a blinding disregard for rules, Colette will find the man who killed her parents even if it kills her. Again.
Kingdom of Sea and Stone (Crown of Coral and Pearl #2) – Mara Rutherford
Release Date: October 6, 2020
Ever since Nor was forced to go to a nearby kingdom in her sister’s place, she’s wanted nothing more than to return to the place and people she loves. But when her wish comes true, she soon finds herself cast out from both worlds, with a war on the horizon.
As an old enemy resurfaces more powerful than ever, Nor will have to keep the kingdom from falling apart with the help of Prince Talin and Nor’s twin sister, Zadie. There are forces within the world more mysterious than any of them ever guessed—and they’ll need to stay alive long enough to conquer them…
A Golden Fury – Samantha Cohoe
Release Date: October 15, 2020
Thea Hope longs to be an alchemist out of the shadow of her famous mother. The two of them are close to creating the legendary Philosopher’s Stone—whose properties include immortality and can turn any metal into gold—but just when the promise of the Stone’s riches is in their grasp, Thea’s mother destroys the Stone in a sudden fit of violent madness.
While combing through her mother’s notes, Thea learns that there’s a curse on the Stone that causes anyone who tries to make it to lose their sanity. With the threat of the French Revolution looming, Thea is sent to Oxford for her safety, to live with the father who doesn’t know she exists.
But in Oxford, there are alchemists after the Stone who don’t believe Thea’s warning about the curse—instead, they’ll stop at nothing to steal Thea’s knowledge of how to create the Stone. But Thea can only run for so long, and soon she will have to choose: create the Stone and sacrifice her sanity, or let the people she loves die.
The Brightest Night (Origin #3) – Jennifer L. Armentrout
Release Date: October 20, 2020
He is the darkest star.
You are the burning shadow.
And together, you will bring about the brightest night.
Less than a year ago, Evelyn Dasher was a normal girl, living an unremarkable life.
Now, she’s on the run, under the protection of the beautiful, deadly inhuman Luc. She’s been betrayed by those who were closest to her. And she’s learned truths about herself that she never saw coming–things she once knew, and was made to forget. Truths with devastating consequences. She’s caught in the eye of the storm.
She is the eye of the storm
Magic Dark and Strange – Kelly Powell
Release Date: October 27, 2020
Catherine Daly has an unusual talent. By day she works for a printer. But by night, she awakens the dead for a few precious moments with loved ones seeking a final goodbye. But this magic comes with a price: for every hour that a ghost is brought back, Catherine loses an hour from her own life.
When Catherine is given the unusual task of collecting a timepiece from an old grave, she is sure that the mysterious item must contain some kind of enchantment. So she enlists Guy Nolan, the watchmaker’s son, to help her dig it up. But instead of a timepiece, they find a surprise: the body of a teenage boy. And as they watch, he comes back to life—not as the pale imitation that Catherine can conjure, but as a living, breathing boy. A boy with no memory of his past.
This magic is more powerful than any Catherine has ever encountered, and revealing it brings dangerous enemies. Catherine and Guy must race to unravel the connection between the missing timepiece and the undead boy. For this mysterious magic could mean the difference between life and death—for all of them.
NOVEMBER:
Beautiful Wild – Anna Godbersen
Release Date: November 3, 2020
You are invited to set sail on the maiden voyage of the SS Princess of the Pacific in this indulgent historical romance from Anna Godbersen, the New York Times bestselling author of the Luxe series.
Vida Hazzard can see her future: aboard the heralded “Millionaire’s Ship of the West,” she’ll charm the young scion Fitzhugh Farrar, resulting in a proposal of marriage.
But Vida didn’t plan on Fitz’s best friend, Sal, a rough-around-the-edges boy with a talent for getting under her skin. Nor did she anticipate a hurricane dashing their ship to pieces, along with her dreams.
Stranded on an island with both Fitz and Sal, Vida is torn between the life she’s always planned for, and a future she’s never dared to want. As they desperately plot a course for home, Vida will discover just which boy can capture her wild heart—and where her future truly lies.
The Camelot Betrayal (Camelot Rising #2) – Kiersten White
Release Date: November 10, 2020
EVERYTHING IS AS IT SHOULD BE IN CAMELOT: King Arthur is expanding his kingdom’s influence with Queen Guinevere at his side. Yet every night, dreams of darkness and unknowable power plague her.
Guinevere might have accepted her role, but she still cannot find a place for herself in all of it. The closer she gets to Brangien, pining for her lost love Isolde, Lancelot, fighting to prove her worth as Queen’s knight, and Arthur, everything to everyone and thus never quite enough for Guinevere–the more she realizes how empty she is. She has no sense of who she truly was before she was Guinevere. The more she tries to claim herself as queen, the more she wonders if Mordred was right: she doesn’t belong. She never will.
When a rescue goes awry and results in the death of something precious, a devastated Guinevere returns to Camelot to find the greatest threat yet has arrived. Not in the form of the Dark Queen or an invading army, but in the form of the real Guinevere’s younger sister. Is her deception at an end? And who is she really deceiving–Camelot, or herself?
Skin Curse (The Gate Cycle #2) – Kristin Jacques
Release Date: November 12, 2020
The Children of the Gate wait for the call to Rise.
Azzy Brimvine knows her brother is in the vast city of Avergard. She must find him, but time is not on their side.
In the House of Seven Smiles, Azzy struggles to understand the constraints and limits of her power. She finds the whispering voices that guided her for so long, suddenly silent. The enigmatic Lord Wallach is both a frustrating ally and a dangerous mystery, and a strange entity lurks among the household servants. The haven Azzy sought may not be as safe as she thought… but is anywhere truly safe in the Above?
The city of Avergard is full of monsters and secrets, and a dark history festers at its root. A yawning pit nestles in the house of a scheming lord, who will use Armin’s dangerous gifts to raise history, and raze the city to the ground. As Azzy finds herself and her brother pulled into these machinations, she must navigate the politics and society of Avergard’s brutal ruling class to save her family and friends before the Gate consumes them all.
These Violent Delights (These Violent Delights #1) – Chloe Gong
Release Date: November 17, 2020
The year is 1926, and Shanghai hums to the tune of debauchery.
A blood feud between two gangs runs the streets red, leaving the city helpless in the grip of chaos. At the heart of it all is eighteen-year-old Juliette Cai, a former flapper who has returned to assume her role as the proud heir of the Scarlet Gang—a network of criminals far above the law. Their only rivals in power are the White Flowers, who have fought the Scarlets for generations. And behind every move is their heir, Roma Montagov, Juliette’s first love…and first betrayal.
But when gangsters on both sides show signs of instability culminating in clawing their own throats out, the people start to whisper. Of a contagion, a madness. Of a monster in the shadows. As the deaths stack up, Juliette and Roma must set their guns—and grudges—aside and work together, for if they can’t stop this mayhem, then there will be no city left for either to rule.
Soulswift – Megan Bannen
Release Date: November 17, 2020
Gelya is a Vessel, a girl who channels the word of the One True God through song. Cloistered with the other Vessels of her faith, she believes—as all Ovinists do—that a saint imprisoned Elath the Great Demon centuries ago, saving humanity from earthly temptation.
When Gelya stumbles into a deadly cover-up by the Ovinists’ military, she reluctantly teams up with Tavik, an enemy soldier, to survive. Tavik believes that Elath is actually a mother goddess who must be set free, but while he succeeds in opening Her prison, he inadvertently turns Gelya into Elath’s unwilling human vessel.
Now the church that raised Gelya considers her a threat. In a race against the clock, she and Tavik must find a way to exorcise Elath’s presence from her body. But will this release stop the countdown to the end of the world, or will it be the cause of the earth’s destruction? And as Tavik and Gelya grow closer, another question lingers between them: What will become of Gelya?
DECEMBER:
A Sky Beyond the Storm (An Ember in the Ashes #4) – Sabaa Tahir
Release Date: December 1, 2020
Picking up just a few months after A Reaper at the Gates left off…
The long-imprisoned jinn are on the attack, wreaking bloody havoc in villages and cities alike. But for the Nightbringer, vengeance on his human foes is just the beginning.
At his side, Commandant Keris Veturia declares herself Empress, and calls for the heads of any and all who defy her rule. At the top of the list? The Blood Shrike and her remaining family.
Laia of Serra, now allied with the Blood Shrike, struggles to recover from the loss of the two people most important to her. Determined to stop the approaching apocalypse, she throws herself into the destruction of the Nightbringer. In the process, she awakens an ancient power that could lead her to victory–or to an unimaginable doom.
And deep in the Waiting Place, the Soul Catcher seeks only to forget the life–and love–he left behind. Yet doing so means ignoring the trail of murder left by the Nightbringer and his jinn. To uphold his oath and protect the human world from the supernatural, the Soul Catcher must look beyond the borders of his own land. He must take on a mission that could save–or destroy–all that he knows.
Daughter of Darkness – Juliana Haygert
Release Date: December 18, 2020
She is destined to kill a demon.
He is sent to protect her.
One of them is about to fail …
He spent centuries in the dark …
After 300 years spent in the underworld as a punishment, warrior Devon is called on by the gods for a chance to fix his mistake—and to win his redemption. But there’s a catch: the gods won’t tell him details about his mission. He’s supposed to suffer while trying to figure out what he did wrong in the past, and fix it in the present.
All Kenna ever wanted was to be the owner of her own life and destiny. But for now all she can do is run away from the evil wanting to claim her powers.
… until she came …
When Devon becomes unintentionally entangled in his new neighbor’s life, he can’t help but feel he’s closer to his purpose. Every moment he spends with Kenna makes him confused, and every time he touches her, glimpses of the past, of his failed mission, come back to haunt him.
… and showed him the light.
Darkness is closing in, and with Kenna’s help, Devon needs to put the pieces of the puzzle together before he fails his mission again and evil consumes the world.
Only this time, he’s sure he won’t be the only one damned.
Which one of these books are you really looking forward too? Like, can’t wait, bouncing off the walls excited for.
Writing The Universe 