2019 was a magnificent year for us bookworms; it introduced a lot of us to some of our new all time favourite books and obsessions. For me personally, 'Sorcery of Thorns', 'A Curse So Dark and Lonely', 'Serpent & Dove', 'Capturing the Devil', 'Wicked King' and 'Queen of Nothing' were among my most memorable favourites. But, a new year is upon us, which means brand new reading material (that your bank account cannot afford, your bookshelves cannot hold, your TBR cries at, but you will buy anyway). Including a new Sarah J Maas release! We are in for some seriously wild rides this year and I for one cannot wait to hop on.

Without further ado, here is a small roundup of some of my most anticipated 2020 releases...



'A Heart So Fierce and Broken' (Cursebreakers #2) - Brigid Kemmerer.

Find the heir, win the crown. 

The curse is finally broken, but Prince Rhen of Emberfall faces darker troubles still. Rumors circulate that he is not the true heir and that forbidden magic has been unleashed in Emberfall. Although Rhen has Harper by his side, his guardsman Grey is missing, leaving more questions than answers.
Win the crown, save the kingdom.

Rumored to be the heir, Grey has been on the run since he destroyed Lilith. He has no desire to challenge Rhen--until Karis Luran once again threatens to take Emberfall by force. Her own daughter Lia Mara sees the flaws in her mother’s violent plan, but can she convince Grey to stand against Rhen, even for the good of Emberfall?

The heart-pounding, compulsively readable saga continues as loyalties are tested and new love blooms in a kingdom on the brink of war.

In the sequel to New York Times bestselling A Curse So Dark and Lonely, Brigid Kemmerer returns to the world of Emberfall in a lush fantasy where friends become foes and love blooms in the darkest of places.



'Chosen' (Slayer #2) - Kiersten White.

Nina continues to learn how to use her slayer powers against enemies old and new in this second novel in the New York Times bestselling series from Kiersten White, set in the world of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Now that Nina has turned the Watcher’s Castle into a utopia for hurt and lonely demons, she’s still waiting for the utopia part to kick in. With her sister Artemis gone and only a few people remaining at the castle—including her still-distant mother—Nina has her hands full. Plus, though she gained back her Slayer powers from Leo, they’re not feeling quite right after being held by the seriously evil succubus Eve, a.k.a. fake Watcher’s Council member and Leo’s mom.

And while Nina is dealing with the darkness inside, there’s also a new threat on the outside, portended by an odd triangle symbol that seems to be popping up everywhere, in connection with Sean’s demon drug ring as well as someone a bit closer to home. Because one near-apocalypse just isn’t enough, right?

The darkness always finds you. And once again, it’s coming for the Slayer.

This book came up as a recommendation on my Goodreads and after reading the synopsis and seeing how highly rated it was I decided to pick it up. In hindsight, I am utterly baffled about how this book earned its 4+ star rating. I understand it probably as much as Ehd understands why he can’t put a baby in Beh (Side note: he doesn’t!)


To be completely honest, the whole thing went rolling swiftly downhill pretty much from the second I opened it up and read the author’s note where Shay Savage tries to scientifically explain why Ehd can not and will not ever be able to understand or speak any sort of language. I want to apologise to myself for not immediately acknowledging this for the huge red flag that it is and still giving this book a chance. 


Let me give you a brief overview. The story opens with our male protagonist Ehd trying to herd animals into the pit trap he made, trying to survive in isolation after a fire killed his entire tribe. Once successful in this, he heads back to his cave, accidentally leaving his weapon by the pit. When he goes back to retrieve it, low and behold a woman wearing strange clothing and making a lot of noise has been trapped in the pit. Said woman is Beh, from the future. Of course, since Ehd can’t understand a single thing that is going on or what she is saying, he immediately labels her as his ‘mate’ and spends the rest of the book desperately trying to ‘put a baby in her’. 


That’s it. That’s the plot. 


The words ‘put a baby in her’ were repeated so many times by the midpoint I wouldn’t have said no to stabbing myself with the primitive hairbrush Ehd made for Beh. The whole thing is basically just the synopsis repeated over and over and over again for 300+ pages.


Beh is, to say the least, highly irritating. All she does is cry and scream, and girl doesn’t make ONE SINGLE ATTEMPT to get back to her own time or even figure out how she time travelled in the first place. Call me crazy, but if I found myself in a situation where I was magically transported to the fucking Stone Age I’d probably try and do a little more to get myself back to the word of flushing toilets and toothpaste before assuming my role as Wilma Flinstone.


To be fair to Beh (if I absolutely must), we never find out how she feels or what she thinks about any of it throughout because the entire book is told in Ehd’s POV. You heard me right. The guy who is not and will not ever be able to speak or understand language beyond basic grunts and guttural sounds tells the whole ass book IN FIRST PERSON AND PRESENT TENSE. 


I have read a few reviews that say Ehd is an ‘alpha male’ and, let me just tell you, Beh bathes him, brushes his teeth, scolds him…at one point when he does something she doesn’t like she literally slaps his nose like a naughty puppy and every time she says ‘no’ he cries and scuttles away into a corner and keeps his head down like fucking Gollum until she lets him touch her again. 


My brain cells felt like they are diving one by one into a pool of acid and each dying a slow and painful death as I was reading this. I just do not understand.

I read a grand total of 8 books this month and, most of them, I enjoyed immensely. I started out with 'Oblivion' by Jennifer L. Armentrout, I gave this a 3 stars because of my enjoyment of the original series but I didn't love this book half as much. It was LONG with the extra material on my Kindle version, it didn't really include any new scenes that differed from the original books and it really didn't give any insight into Daemon's thoughts and actions, just reactions to things. I would say it's more of a 2/2.5 star read for me. 'The Beautiful' was also a 3 star read, I have a full review up on here and my Goodreads page if you're interested in more in depth thoughts and feelings about that! 'The Infernal Devices' was a reread for me, although I didn't remember a single thing about any of the trilogy, and I enjoyed them all thoroughly. I flew through them, but I'm going to be giving the Shadowhunter world a little bit of a break for a while ('The Mortal Instruments' has some bloody hefty books!). Here's where it gets interesting... 'The Cruel Prince' is a book that I DNF'd last year and I was sure it just was not for me. However, I decided to give it another go because I really wanted to love it and be able to join in on the hype! So, give it another go I did... and I am super glad I made that decision! When I first tried to read it, I had just read ACOTAR for the first time and dived straight into 'The Cruel Prince' afterwards and I think that's why I struggled so much to enjoy it. This time around however I had a fresh mind set and ended up loving the whole series (especially 'The Wicked King') greatly!

Here are the rest of the books I read in November and what I rated them...




Oblivion (Lux #1.5) - Jennifer L. Armentrout.

Experience the epic love story of OBSIDIAN as told by its hero, Daemon Black…

I knew the moment Katy Swartz moved in next door, there was going to be trouble. Lots of it.

And trouble's the last thing I need, since I'm not exactly from around here. My people arrived on Earth from Lux, a planet thirteen billion light years away. Plus, if there's one thing I know, it's that humans can't be trusted. We scare them. We can do things they only dream about, and honestly, we make them look weak as hell. 'Cuz they are.

But Kat is getting to me in ways no one else has, and I can't stop myself from wanting her--or wanting to use my powers to protect her. She makes me weak, and I'm the strongest of our kind, tasked with protecting us all. So this one simple girl…she can mean the end for us. Because the Luxen have an even bigger enemy--the Arum, and I need to stay on my game.

Falling for Katy--a human--won't just place her in danger. It could get us all killed, and that's one thing I'll never let happen...




When more bodies are discovered, each crime more gruesome than the last, Celine and New Orleans become gripped by the terror of a serial killer on the loose—one Celine is sure has set her in his sights . . . and who may even be the young man who has stolen her heart. As the murders continue to go unsolved, Celine takes matters into her own hands and soon uncovers something even more shocking: an age-old feud from the darkest creatures of the underworld reveals a truth about Celine she always suspected simmered just beneath the surface.



Clockwork Angel (The Infernal Devices #1) - Cassandra Clare

In a time when Shadowhunters are barely winning the fight against the forces of darkness, one battle will change the course of history forever. Welcome to the Infernal Devices trilogy, a stunning and dangerous prequel to the New York Times bestselling Mortal Instruments series.

The year is 1878. Tessa Gray descends into London’s dark supernatural underworld in search of her missing brother. She soon discovers that her only allies are the demon-slaying Shadowhunters—including Will and Jem, the mysterious boys she is attracted to. Soon they find themselves up against the Pandemonium Club, a secret organization of vampires, demons, warlocks, and humans. Equipped with a magical army of unstoppable clockwork creatures, the Club is out to rule the British Empire, and only Tessa and her allies can stop them...





Tessa finds her heart drawn more and more to Jem, but her longing for Will, despite his dark moods, continues to unsettle her. But something is changing in Will—the wall he has built around himself is crumbling. Could finding the Magister free Will from his secrets and give Tessa the answers about who she is and what she was born to do?




THE INFERNAL DEVICES WILL NEVER STOP COMING

A net of shadows begins to tighten around the Shadowhunters of the London Institute. Mortmain plans to use his Infernal Devices, an army of pitiless automatons, to destroy the Shadowhunters. He needs only one last item to complete his plan: he needs Tessa Gray.

Charlotte Branwell, head of the London Institute, is desperate to find Mortmain before he strikes. But when Mortmain abducts Tessa, the boys who lay equal claim to her heart, Jem and Will, will do anything to save her. For though Tessa and Jem are now engaged, Will is as much in love with her as ever.

As those who love Tessa rally to rescue her from Mortmain’s clutches, Tessa realizes that the only person who can save her is herself. But can a single girl, even one who can command the power of angels, face down an entire army?



Jude was seven when her parents were murdered and she and her two sisters were stolen away to live in the treacherous High Court of Faerie. Ten years later, Jude wants nothing more than to belong there, despite her mortality. But many of the fey despise humans. Especially Prince Cardan, the youngest and wickedest son of the High King.

To win a place at the Court, she must defy him–and face the consequences.

As Jude becomes more deeply embroiled in palace intrigues and deceptions, she discovers her own capacity for trickery and bloodshed. But as betrayal threatens to drown the Courts of Faerie in violence, Jude will need to risk her life in a dangerous alliance to save her sisters, and Faerie itself.



After the jaw-dropping revelation that Oak is the heir to Faerie, Jude must keep her younger brother safe. To do so, she has bound the wicked king, Cardan, to her, and made herself the power behind the throne. Navigating the constantly shifting political alliances of Faerie would be difficult enough if Cardan were easy to control. But he does everything in his power to humiliate and undermine her even as his fascination with her remains undiminished.

When it becomes all too clear that someone close to Jude means to betray her, threatening her own life and the lives of everyone she loves, Jude must uncover the traitor and fight her own complicated feelings for Cardan to maintain control as a mortal in a Faerie world.


Power is much easier to acquire than it is to hold onto. Jude learned this lesson when she released her control over the wicked king, Cardan, in exchange for immeasurable power.

Now as the exiled mortal Queen of Faerie, Jude is powerless and left reeling from Cardan’s betrayal. She bides her time determined to reclaim everything he took from her. Opportunity arrives in the form of her deceptive twin sister, Taryn, whose mortal life is in peril.

Jude must risk venturing back into the treacherous Faerie Court, and confront her lingering feelings for Cardan, if she wishes to save her sister. But Elfhame is not as she left it. War is brewing. As Jude slips deep within enemy lines she becomes ensnared in the conflict’s bloody politics.

And, when a dormant yet powerful curse is unleashed, panic spreads throughout the land, forcing her to choose between her ambition and her humanity…