While the future of 2021 is unsure, at least there is plenty of content from films and TV to the wonderful array of books coming our way. Many books are coming out this year (thank God!), as well as many films and shows. So, here are six books being released in the first six months of 2021!
January – Remote Control by Nnedi Okorafor
“She’s the adopted daughter of the Angel of Death. Beware of her. Mind her. Death guards her like one of its own.”
Multiple award-winning author Nnedi Okorafor’s new book is definitely one to pick up in 2021.
With a touch that can kill and a glance that can massacre, Fatima has forgotten her name and has somehow been changed by Death itself.
Now known as Sankofa, she walks alone – except for a fox friend – in search of the object that came from the sky and “gave itself to her”.
With Sankofa being the only tie to her family and any kind of past, she starts on a mission for answers.
This book will be released on January 19th – so make sure you check out this exciting new read!
February – The Witch’s Heart by Genevieve Gornichec
“When a banished Witch falls in love with the legendary trickster Loki, she risks the wrath of the gods in this fierce, subversive debut novel that reimagines Norse myth.”
After Angrboda has been badly injured, she stumbles across a man who reveals himself to be Loki, the trickster. Angrboda quickly goes from hating him, to falling in love with him.
When their relationship produces three children, with their own secret destinies, Angrboda soon realises she must chose between accepting the fate of her and her family (who she has kept hidden from Odin), and the chance to remake the future.
For a debut novel, the story here sounds exceptionally clever. Reimagining such classics must be a challenge, but this book seems effortlessly brilliant.
This book will be out on February 9th – make sure you get a copy!
March – The Ladies of the Secret Circus by Constance Sayers
“A magical story spanning from Jazz Age Paris to present-day America of family, secrets, sacrifice, and love lost set against the backdrop of a mysterious circus.”
From Paris in 1925, to Virginia 2005, this books spans a mass of years when Lara’s fiancé goes missing on her wedding day leading her to search for answers.
This search directs her to her great-grandmother’s journals, which involve a dark circus and a generational curse…
When a book spans different times, things can always get confusing. Which is why this book will be one to read – seeing how Sayers tells the story of two different women in two separate times will be interesting to say the least – especially when they’re connected by a dark curse and a secret circus.
You can buy this book from March 23rd, so mark the date!
April – Malice by Heather Walter
“A princess isn’t supposed to fall for an evil sorceress. But in this darkly magical retelling of “Sleeping Beauty”, true love is more than a simple fairy tale.”
Another book that seeks to retell the classics and perhaps, even make them more interesting.
It seems that within this debut novel, we see through the eyes of the villain, Alyce. Alyce seems to want to help the cursed Princess Aurora, but it turns out that she may be the one to blame for the heir the Blair’s throne being cursed in the first place…
Following the villain rather than the protagonist always seems interesting, and combining this with a retelling of a fairy tale, in a dark and twisted manor, should be a very interesting read to say the least.
This debut novel will be released on April 13th, so keep an eye out!
May – The Ones We’re Meant to Find by Joan He
“One of the most twisty, surprising, engaging page-turner YAs (young adult) you’ll read this year…”
STEM prodigy Kasey is looking to escape the home she used to trust, and will have to make a decision regarding whether or not to use science to save humanity, even though it failed the people who mattered the most.
We also seem to follow Cee, marooned on an abandoned island. With only a small unstable house, an android, and one memory of a missing sister, Cee realises she must find her sister.
This book seemingly splices two separate stories together – which can sometimes be risky. But this book appears very elegant and well-thought out, so, may be worth the pick when May rolls around.
The book is out May 4th, make sure you check it out!
June – Dead Ground by M W Craven
“Detective Sergeant Washington Poe is in court, fighting eviction from his beloved and isolated croft, when he is summoned to a backstreet brothel in Carlisle where a man has been beaten to death with a baseball bat.”
A seemingly simple plot, but with Craven and his books, nothing is simple. This book is the fourth in the ‘Poe and Tilly’ series of books following Poe, a grumpy Detective Sergeant, and Tilly Bradshaw, a straightforwardly blunt yet genius programmer.
Nothing in the victim’s background checks out, and both Poe and Tilly are confused as to why an ornament was left at the scene, and why someone on the investigation team stole it.
Craven’s Poe and Tilly series is immensely clever, with amazing plots and carefully crafted twists and turns. This next book in the series is sure to turn heads once again.
You can grab this book from June 3rd – do not miss out!
Written by Melissa, who you can follow on Twitter @melissajournal
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