The sun is out, the weather is warmer but not yet unbearably so, and I am about to do what I usually do and then regret doing, and never learn from anyway: create one more column in this Substack, that I will invariably not have the time/energy/hyperfocus and thrill a new endeavour gives me, to keep up with.
But hey! I am taking my projects in stride, I am done holding myself back in fear of giving up, this week I am sending out this column, next week we will see!
I am not being paid for these, so I may be broke, impulsive, overly optimistic, but at least I am free.
Let’s start with a confession, shall we?
I have gone back to my old ways, even though I am not the old me anymore. This is to say: I’ve been requesting eARCs again, while reading slower than a stopped watch (it’s right twice a day. Wait, wrong metaphor).
Last year I was very diligent in my eARC curiosity, barely downloading anything.
This year, however, I am back on my bullshit, and although I’ve been mostly downloading upcoming novels that don’t require a request, this doesn’t make my situation less dire.
I pretend it does, deny my situation by avoiding looking at my ereader, but that is in itself an issue because with so many eARCs to read, I should most definitely be looking at my ereader.
No matter. If you don’t tell, I won’t tell, and I can have a brand new column that I hope will help you all find out what is coming to the market, or at least what is coming to the market that I think is worth keeping an eye out for.
Also! Oh!-, by opening this space, I am actually giving back to the publishers because I am bringing to your attention all the new titles I requested (and a few I didn’t).
Yes, this is why I created this column, to give back, it was my plan all along (the idea just crossed my mind, like, right now).
The titles I will be highlighting in this column every week - again, can’t believe I am committing to writing a weekly newsletter, what am I doing - are available for request on Edelweiss+.
If you don’t know what Edelweiss+ is and don’t care to Google it, get into my DMs, my van is full of sweets and I am mostly harmless. Although many of you will probably be familiar with Netgalley, and it’s basically the very same. In fact, some of the same titles might be available there too, so if you tend to be lucky on Netgalley, I would recommend you request any title that intrigues you there.
Below are the titles I stumbled upon this week which made me think: oh, that sounds interesting! I really shouldn’t request more ARCs haha I can’t keep up, oh oops didn’t mean to press download, ah well, too late to turn back now! *laughs manically, then also sobs manically*
And before you dive in and think I am mad (granted, very likely been there done that situation), this list is rather long because I lied and it’s not just the books that caught my eye this week, but a list of titles I’ve been collecting for the last month or so.
All descriptions were taken from Edelweiss+ itself because, babes, I do not have the energy to write everything in my own words and I sure as hell ain’t using AI to do it for me.
It is also worth noting that the pub dates below are for the US market. I will try as much as I can to include only books not published at all, but some publications going out later in the US may catch my attention enough to be added to the list.
Each post will contain more or less ten books, taking into account everyone’s attention span. You can’t call me inconsiderate.
Hope this is all acceptable, and I also hope you find something to look forward to.
Pub Date: August 26, 2025
Why I Think It’s Worth Checking Out:
This is the newest by K. F. Kuang, need I say more? Well, I will.
While Yellowface wasn’t exactly my cup of tea, I absolutely loved Babel!
Katabasis seems more on the light side of fantasy so I am very curious to see what Kuang did in this novel.
Blurb:
Alice Law has only ever had one goal: to become one of the brightest minds in the field of Magick. She has sacrificed everything to make that a reality: her pride, her health, her love life, and most definitely her sanity. All to work with Professor Jacob Grimes at Cambridge, the greatest magician in the world.
That is, until he dies in a magical accident that could possibly be her fault.
Grimes is now in Hell, and she’s going in after him. Because his recommendation could hold her very future in his now incorporeal hands and even death is not going to stop the pursuit of her dreams….
Nor will the fact that her rival, Peter Murdoch, has come to the very same conclusion.
With nothing but the tales of Orpheus and Dante to guide them, enough chalk to draw the Pentagrams necessary for their spells, and the burning desire to make all the academic trauma mean anything, they set off across Hell to save a man they don’t even like.
But Hell is not like the storybooks say, Magick isn’t always the answer, and there’s something in Alice and Peter’s past that could forge them into the perfect allies…or lead to their doom.
Pub Date: May 6, 2025
Why I Think It’s Worth Checking Out:
This one is giving unreliable narrator vibes.
I tend to enjoy plots within a medical background, and a character who seems to be directly involved in the mystery surrounding them makes a story even more promising.
Blurb:
When a catatonic woman shows up at the psychiatric unit, social worker Thea swears she knows her from somewhere. She’s shocked to discover the patient holds a link to a traumatic time in her past. Upon regaining lucidity, the patient claims she can’t remember the horrific recent events that caused her brain to shut down. Thea’s at a loss—especially when the patient is ripped away from her as suddenly as she appeared.
Determined to find her, Thea follows a trail of clues to a remote centre in Southwestern New Mexico, where a charismatic couple holds a controversial monthly retreat to uncover attendees’ romantic and sexual issues. Forced to participate in increasingly intimate exercises, Thea finds herself inching closer not only to her missing patient, but also to tantalising answers about her harrowing past. However, time is running out, and if she stays for the last session, she too might lose her mind…or worse.
Pub Date: April 29, 2025
Why I Think It’s Worth Checking Out:
I have a good rep concerning books about sisters (The Vanishing Half by Britt Bennet, Yolk by Mary H. K. Choi, Sisters by Daisy Johnson), and I especially like stories of people who “have nothing to lose” as they always have a lot to lose, in fact.
Also, the main character takes on the identity of her deceased sister for the sake of a supposedly more fulfilling life? I want to find out how she’s getting out of this one.
Blurb:
Julie Chan, a supermarket cashier with nothing to lose, finds herself thrust into the glamorous yet perilous world of her late twin sister, Chloe Van Huusen, a popular influencer. Separated at a young age, the identical twins were polar opposites and rarely spoke, except for one viral video that Chloe initiated.
When Julie discovers Chloe’s lifeless body under mysterious circumstances, she seizes the chance to live the life she’s always envied.
Transforming into Chloe is easier than expected. Julie effortlessly adopts Chloe’s luxurious influencer life, complete with designer clothes, a meticulous skincare routine, and millions of adoring followers. However, Julie soon realises that Chloe’s seemingly picture-perfect life was anything but.
Haunted by Chloe’s untimely death and struggling to fit into the privileged influencer circle, Julie faces mounting challenges during a week long island retreat with Chloe’s exclusive group of influencer friends. As events spiral out of control, Julie uncovers the sinister forces that may have led to her sister’s demise and realises she might be the next target.
Pub Date: April 30, 2025
Why I Think It’s Worth Checking Out:
First, I am always down to reading more books by indigenous writers.
Second, it is a book about memory, and loss, with some magical elements to it as well.
Blurb:
Felix Babimoosay is his most recent name, and it seems better than any other name he’s been offered. He journeys ever forward across a sharp landscape of flat plains, stung by insects, wind, and thirst. Unable to remember his past, he doggedly walks alone through the decaying world until he is pursued by a threatening man claiming a bounty on Felix’s head. Felix’s irritation spurs a slow memory of the days he left behind, until he stumbles into a corrupted town and a city of talking crows that push him to move beyond his lost memories.
Pub Date: May 6, 2025
Why I Think It’s Worth Checking Out:
Have you seen this cover?
In the past year or so, it seems that squarish covers with a painting or artsy photo on them have become all the rage, and I love them! They make every book look more interesting than what it probably is.
The story also seems to have a political background, and I am always down for books that make you consider the state of the world.
Blurb:
Four New Yorkers' paths collide in the days ahead of the 2016 election. Dan teaches Marxism while secretly courting a student. His girlfriend Mariko, an actress, finds refuge in her dying mentor's bed. When her sister, Akari, arrives from LA—in flight from her own dead-end romance—she becomes the unwitting witness to their mutual destruction . . .
In crystalline prose, Gasda maps the territory between who we pretend to be and who we are—and how far we are willing to go when we think the internet isn't looking. The Sleepers, a ruthless portrait of educated Millennials who know better but act worse, throws a jagged, electric light on how desire upends our carefully curated social personas.
Pub Date: May 6, 2025
Why I Think It’s Worth Checking Out:
I really like the city-girl-goes-to-the-woods-to-heal-and-then-shit-goes-down trope.
Also, it’s givin man vs bear and she choses to heal the m,an, so you know it’s not gonna end well for her.
Blurb:
A psychologist in crisis leaves her established practice in the city for an open-ended retreat in the mountains at the Institute for Healing and Transformation. Feeling lost, betrayed, and stricken by guilt not to have saved her daughter from sexual abuse, she hopes to find a new path to ease her pain and uncertainties.
Soon after her arrival, a “wild” man who roamed the forest with a bear is brought to the institute. When the man is given to her care, she performs a suspenseful balancing as she seeks to heal him as well as herself.
Hiking and meditating each day, she initiates an inner journey that shakes her free from the familiar. As the months pass, she engages her guilt and sorrow, confronts her failures, weighs the limits of therapy and self-forgiveness, and seeks to unleash the healing powers of the unconscious and of love.
Pub Date: May 20, 2025
Why I Think It’s Worth Checking Out:
It’s giving true crime, and if we go by the books on this list, I was certainly in the mood for murder these last past months.
Blurb:
The Labasques aren’t like other families.
Living in a shack out in the swamps, they made do by hunting down alligators and other animals. To the good people of Jacknife, Louisiana, they are troublemakers and outcasts, the kind of people you wouldn’t want in your community.
So, when Cutter Labasque is found face down in the muddy swamp, no one seems to care, not even her two brothers. The only person who questions the official verdict of suicide is Cutter’s childhood friend, Loyal May, who has just returned home to care for her mother. When she left town at eighteen years old, she betrayed Cutter. Now with a ragtag group from the local paper where she works, Loyal goes in search of answers, uncovering a web of deceit and corruption that implicates those in town. It may be too late to apologise to Cutter, but Loyal has restitution in mind.
Pub Date: May 13, 2025
Why I Think It’s Worth Checking Out:
First of all, I have a friend called Bindu, so when I saw the author’s name I thought it was fate.
The book also seems very much to be about people and travel, and literary fiction is my favourite genre for a reason.
I also suspect the individual stories might all be intertwined, so it definitely has my attention.
Blurb:
Estela, a lawyer, struggles professionally after a deep childhood loss and an ill-advised undergraduate dalliance. Ash is a diplomat posted to Buenos Aires and Beijing who wants what he can’t have. Ophélie, a nurse, makes a grievous medical error that alters the course of her life. And Roman is an academic whose careless sexual escapades after a painful divorce lead to even more painful consequences.
Tense, poetic, and as binge-worthy as a miniseries, The Road Between Us explores why we make the decisions we do, and how those decisions affect the people we love.
Pub Date: June 3, 2025
Why I Think It’s Worth Checking Out:
The premise of the main character being transported to an alternate reality and the possibilities of two completely different lives led by one different choice was enough to hook me.
Add that to finding your alternate reality self, and I am even more intrigued.
Blurb:
23-year-old Sirad Ali is a woman adrift. Abandoned by her father in childhood, she does her best to support her mother and younger brother in their small flat in South London. But she can’t help but wonder if this is the life she really wants.
Until one morning, when she boards the bus to work in Greenwich, she finds herself transported to an alternate reality in present-day Mogadishu. There she encounters her double, Ubah – the woman she could have been had her parents never fled to London during the Somali Civil War. And what follows will change both of their lives for ever.
Pub Date: July 4, 2025
Why I Think It’s Worth Checking Out:
The thing that intrigued me the most in the blurb was the use of an unnamed African country.
I am really curious to see what the author makes of the theme without it being attached to one specific point and place in history, while being very much about history.
Also looking forward to seeing the criticism on Western colonisation.
Blurb:
In an unnamed African country devoured by rampant urbanisation and haunted by the mirages of Western prosperity, where for a few CFA francs a child can be bought and sold for slavery, Toumani's earliest education is in the tolerance of suffering. He endures one master then the next, holding his survival—his very self—with open hands.
For Iman, a black and white biracial boy with an elusive presence, the only viable option appears to be an escape to bountiful Europe, where everything must be easier. Obsessed with this idyllic elsewhere to the point of losing himself completely, he remains, for those close to him, an object of fascination difficult to define.
When Iman reaches out his hand to rescue Toumani from certain death, he sets in motion a friendship that may satisfy their need for connection but cannot fundamentally change their circumstances. What is the point of survival without hope for a more livable future? And what happens to them when they both love the same girl?
Is there any book in this list that strikes your fancy? Let me know in the comments!
Be good, stay chaotic. |
Liefs,
Carina
These post contain a few affiliate links. When you buy audiobooks using these links it comes at no extra cost to you and I get a small commission.
“I am not being paid for these, so I may be broke, impulsive, overly optimistic, but at least I am free.” 😂😂😂
Thank you so much for restacking! And if it’s not a coincidence you share a name with the author of The Sleepers, congrats on the book too, looking forward to reading it!