This first month of 2019 is already promising to be wildly exciting for YA releases! Some huge titles are releasing and getting ready to blow our minds and set the standard super high right upfront. I, for one, am cramming in desperate rereads as the old favourite authors add to their series and also trying to decide between the dozens of fresh-faced books and newer authors to try. Can we just…have them all? Please?
Here are some I’m specifically excited for!
The Wicked King (#2) by Holly Black
If you haven’t read The Cruel Prince yet, my first question is: WHY NOT. It’s a murderous twisty tale of fae and intrigue, of betrayal and loyalty, and a enemies-to-lovers storyline that will absolutely steal (and stab?!) your heart. It ended in such a cliffhanger and I’ve been angsting desperately for this sequel foreverrrr. Now it’s finally here and I am READY.
King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo
While this isn’t technically a sequel, it is a spin-off the Grisha series! Leigh Bardugo wrote the first Shadow & Bone trilogy and gradually it grew to giving us the Six of Crows duology and the Language of Thorns fairy tales. I’m not sure if it’ll be as good if you haven’t read, at least, the Grisha books, so get onto that! You still have time. I’m WILD for this series because it’s centring around Nikolai, the part-prince-part-pirate hearthrob who was a secondary character in the Grisha books. Now he’s stealing the whole page.
A Curse So Dark And Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer
Her contemporary books are some of my all time favourites so OF COURSE I long to see what she does with a fairy tale retelling fantasy! It promises beasts and cursed princes and broken promises and a girl with cerebral palsy and towers and MAGIC.
I feel like I’ve been ready and hyped for this one forever!
Stain by AG Howard
Another author I’ve been following since her debut series, Splintered, which was an Alice in Wonderland retelling. Now we’re back in the retelling realms with a Princess and the Pea reimagined. Which also is quite different to the usual ones that get retold?! A girl without a voice must win back a kingdom and save a prince!
The Dead Queens Club by Hannah Capin
What if King Henry VIII was…in a modern contemporary highschool!? This is going to be such a fascinating modernised retelling and I am HERE for it. It’s narrated by a girl determined to find out why local highschool heartthrob seems to be following in the infamous terrible Henry VIII’s footsteps…and why his girlfriends (and he has a lot) often end up dead…
The Girl King by Mini Yu
This is the tale of two sisters who become rivals in a war to claim the title of Emperor. Their father takes the title away from them, promising it to a distant male cousin instead. Both his daughters, Min and Lu, are furious and are not about to stand for this. But the accidentally become enemies in the process…because who truly deserves the throne?! It promises ambition, sacrifice and betrayal, as well as shapeshifters and swords and hidden powers!
