The Books I'm Reading Now
I'm reading The Heiress, Rachel Hawkins's upcoming (January 9) gothic suspense novel, set in North Carolina and centering around a notorious socialite with a checkered past; I'm listening to The Stolen Heir, the first in Holly Black's Stolen Heir duology, which revisits characters and places from her Folk of the Air trilogy; and I'm reading the upcoming (January 9) young adult rom-com Dungeons and Drama, about a young woman with Broadway aspirations and the nerdy game store clerk she's fake dating in an elaborate attempt to rebirth her high school's spring musical.
What are you reading these days, bookworms?
01 The Heiress by Rachel Hawkins
When Ruby McTavish Callahan Woodward Miller Kenmore dies, she's North Carolina's richest woman--and its most infamous.
Ruby was the victim of a childhood kidnapping that turned the community of Tavistock on its head, and since then her power has grown--as has her list of dead husbands (four).
But high in the Blue Ridge Mountains, on her lavish estate, her adopted son Camden is determined to reject his sizeable inheritance, the McTavish family, and anything to do with Ruby.
Strange murmurings about Ruby's past begin to surface, and Camden is forced to face questions about inheritance, legacy, and family ties that reach beyond the grave.
Hawkins is also the author of The Villa, Reckless Girls, and The Wife Upstairs.
I received a prepublication edition of this book, scheduled for publication on January 9, courtesy of NetGalley and St. Martin's Press.
02 The Stolen Heir: A Novel of Elfhame (Stolen Heir #1) by Holly Black
In The Stolen Heir, the first of Holly Black's Stolen Heir duology, Suren (Wren), changeling child queen of the Court of Teeth, is forced to band together with the charming, untrustworthy Oak (fae brother of Jude), to try to save Madoc from Lady Nore's Ice Needle Citadel.
Wren and Oak were once betrothed, and Wren isn't sure how much of Oak's appealing vulnerability and honesty is real--or if she's being played for a fool. But Wren isn't content to let her fate be shaped by a beautiful, magical prince. She's going to wrest control of her own destiny.
This book returns to the world of Elfhame, and I think it's important to first read the Folk of the Air trilogy (see link below) in order to understand the plot and character development.
I'm listening to this as an audiobook.
Click here for my review of Black's The Queen of Nothing; I mentioned the Folk of the Air trilogy in the Greedy Reading List Six Royally Magical Young Adult Series.
03 Dungeons and Drama by Kristy Boyce
Riley wants to bring back her school's spring musical, and it's all part of a grand plan to set herself up to be a Broadway director.
But when she borrows her mom's car without permission and gets grounded, she suddenly has to spend afternoons working at her father's game store instead.
Determined not to give up on the musical, Riley convinces a nerdy teen coworker, Nathan, to cover her shifts, and in return she promises to make his gamer crush jealous by doing some convincing flirting with him.
But role-playing in Nathan's Dungeons & Dragons game turns out to be...fun. And liking Nathan is starting to feel like less of an act than simply a reality.
I received a prepublication edition of this book, scheduled for publication on January 9, courtesy of NetGalley and Random House Children's, Delacorte Press.