Tell Me Something Tuesday: Which Books Are You Looking Forward to Reading This Spring? (March-May)

Tell Me Something Tuesday is a weekly meme created by Heidi at Rainy Day Ramblings in order to discuss a wide range of topics from books to blogging (and some slightly more personal matters throw in for good measure). After Heidi stopped blogging (apparently for good), five of us took over as hosts while providing new questions. The current team is composed of Berls at Because Reading Is Better Than Real Life, Jen at That's What I'm Talking About, Karen at For What It's Worth, Linda at Book Girl of Mur-y-Castell and Roberta at Offbeat YA. This week's question is...

WHICH BOOKS ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO READING THIS SPRING? (MARCH-MAY)

I don't know if I'll ever get around to buying all these books or when, since 1) early reviews and excerpts might cause me to change my mind in the future, and 2) given my current situation (see: unemployment status), book money is scarce...(I got a few of these in eARC form though! See below. Then again, for the majority of these I've been rejected - or I haven't gotten an answer yet - on EW, and I've only been able to wish for them on NG, which HAHAHA OK BYE). Anyhow, I wanted to give a bit of exposure to all the spring books that caught my eye, so here's my list (complete with pub dates)...and yikes, there are FIFTEEN of them???!!!??? ("only" fourteen, actually - one of them was postponed to September!).            

MARCH

11th. Seanan McGuire: Installment Immortality (Adult)

After four generations of caring for the Price family, Mary Dunlavy has more than earned a break from the ongoing war with the Covenant of St. George. Instead, what she's getting is a new employer, in the form of the anima mundi, Earth's living soul made manifest, and a new assignment: to hunt down the Covenant agents on the East Coast and make them stop imprisoning America's ghosts.

All in a day's work for a phantom nanny, even one who'd really rather be teaching her youngest charges how to read.

One ghost can't take on the entire Covenant without backup, which is how she winds up on a road trip with the still-mourning Elsie and the slowly collapsing Arthur, both of whom are reeling in their own way from the loss of their mother. New allies and new enemies await in Worcester, Massachusetts, where the path of the haunting leads.

With the anima mundi demanding results and Mary's newfound freedom at stake, it's down to Mary to make sure that everyone gets out of this adventure alive.

It's been a long afterlife, but Mary Dunlavy's not ready to be exorcised quite yet.

Note: Book 14 (!!!!!) in the InCryptid series, which you HAVE to read if you're even remotely a fan of urban fantasy. Alas, this year I didn't manage to get an ARC (as I did for Book 13 last year), but I'm buying all these anyway...

 ***

11th. Arkady Martine: Rose/House (Adult)

All of Basit Deniau’s houses were haunted. Rose House, his final architectural triumph built in the remote Mojave desert, was perhaps the most.

A house embedded with an artificial intelligence is a common thing. But a house that is an artificial intelligence, infused in every crevice and corner with a thinking creature that is not human? That is something else altogether. That is Rose House.

When Detective Maritza Smith gets a call from Rose House, she’s shocked to learn that there is a dead body behind its sealed-up door. Everybody in town knows it’s haunted. But Basit died more than a year ago, and everybody also knows that only his former protege, Dr. Selene Gisil, is permitted inside. But Selene wasn’t in the country when Rose House called in the death. Who is the dead body? How did they get in? And who—or what—killed them?

The answers lie within the labyrinthine halls of Rose House. But even if Maritza can get inside, there is no guarantee she will ever be able to leave ...

Note: This novella first came out in 2023 by Subterranean Press, in one of their usual limited editions. It's being reprinted in the hope that it will reach a larger audience, I assume (I liked the old cover much better, but oh well). Another ARC rejection for me on EW, but I ultimately got the book via NG! I'm going to read this one as soon as I finish my current review (the one for the book below).

***

18th. Philip Fracassi: The Third Rule of Time Travel (Adult)

Scientist Beth Darlow has discovered the unimaginable. She's built a machine that allows human consciousness to travel through time—to any point in the traveler's lifetime—and relive moments of their life. An impossible breakthrough, but it's not perfect: the traveler has no way to interact with the past. They can only observe.

After Beth's husband, Colson, the co-creator of the machine, dies in a tragic car accident, Beth is left to raise Isabella—their only daughter—and continue the work they started. Mired in grief and threatened by her ruthless CEO, Beth pushes herself to the limit to prove the value of her technology.

Then the impossible happens. Simply viewing personal history should not alter the present, but with each new observation she makes, her own timeline begins to warp.

As her reality constantly shifts, Beth must solve the puzzles of her past, even if it means forsaking her future.

Note: You know me and time travel, right? 😉 This one was "Wish for it!" on NG at first, and my EW request had been stuck still in limbo for ages, but when the UK publisher made the book available for regular request on NG, I was approved in a few days! (For the record: the new reader for LCPL files SUCKS). I did enjoy this one!

***

18th. KC Jones: White Line Fever (Adult)

At a passing glance, County Road 951 is an entirely unremarkable stretch of blacktop, a two-lane scar across the Cascade foothills of Central Oregon.

But the road is known by another name, coined by those who’ve had to clean up after all those scenic detours went horribly wrong: The Devil’s Driveway.

When Livia and her long-time friends take the Driveway as a shortcut to a much-needed weekend getaway, what begins as a morning joyride quickly becomes anything but. Soon, they’re driving for their lives, pursued by a horror beyond anything they ever imagined.

The Devil’s Driveway might be only 15 miles long, but with danger at every turn, it will take the four women to the very limits of their friendships and their sanity.

And there’s no telling what else lies in wait just beyond the bend.

Note: Again, request denied, but it sounds like my brand of weird, so on the TBR list it stays 😁.

***

18th. Emily Yu-Xuan Qin: Aunt Tigress (Adult)

Tam hasn’t eaten anyone in years. 

She is now Mama’s soft-spoken, vegan daughter — everything dangerous about her is cut out, repressed. Medicated.

But when Tam’s estranged Aunt Tigress is found murdered and skinned, Tam inherits an undead fox in a shoebox and an ensemble of old enemies. 

The demons, the ghosts, the gods running coffee shops by the river? Fine. The tentacled thing stalking Tam across the city? Absolutely not. And when Tam realizes the girl she’s falling in love with might be yet another loose end from her past? That’s just the brassy, beautiful cherry on top.

Because no matter how quietly she lives, Tam can’t hide from her voracious upbringing, nor the suffering she caused. As she navigates romance, redemption, and the end of the world, she can’t help but wonder…

Do monsters even deserve happy endings?

With worldbuilding inspired by Chinese folklore and the Siksiká Nation in Canada, LGBTQIA+ representation, and a sapphic romance, Aunt Tigress is at once familiar and breathtakingly innovative.

Note: I got not one, but TWO approvals for this book - both on NG and EW. And I was so happy, because the synopsis made it sound AWESOME (also, even if I don't put much stock in covers, this one is stunning). Can you believe it ended up being my first DNF of the year? So bummed. Still putting it here because I WAS looking forward to it so bad, and because I'm sure a lot of people are going to love it...

***

APRIL

1st. Dawn Kurtagich: The Thorns (Adult)

Touch a line, you break your spine.

Stacey is the dusty air, the cracked soil, the drought. To fourteen-year-old Bethany Sloane, she’s everything.

Abandoned by her mother at a remote African boarding school, Bethany will do anything to stay in Stacey’s good graces. And that means learning the rules of each twisted game.

Touch a crack, you break your back.

Seventeen years later, Bethany is a bestselling author. Disabled now, she can’t remember what happened back in the bush. But there’s no mistaking Stacey Preston’s name in her inbox.

Glassy, glassy, cut my arsey.

That email brings Bethany’s childhood rushing back. The Glass Man was just a story the Thorns invented, a game of wits. But every game has its rules—and consequences for breaking them. To stay alive this round, Bethany needs to play right into Stacey’s hands.

Dark and disturbing, The Thorns explores the horrifying world of adolescent abuse, controlling friendships, and blinding obsession.

Note: This one was Read Now on NG (WHAT?), and since I've enjoyed Kurtagich in the past (I loved The Dead House...though The Creeper Man let me down), I jumped at the chance of reading it. I did like it more than TCM, but 1) based on the introduction that precedes the synopsis, I expected a supernatural thread that wasn't there, and 2) it was a depressing book for a number of reasons...Mini review to come around pub date.

***

1st. Daryl Gregory: When We Were Real (Adult)

JP and Dulin have been the best of friends for decades. When JP finds out his cancer has aggressively returned, Dulin decides it’s the perfect time for one last adventure: a week-long bus tour of North America’s Impossibles, the physics-defying glitches and geographic miracles that started cropping up seven years earlier—right after the Announcement that revealed our world to be merely a digital simulacrum. The outing, courtesy of Canterbury Trails Tours, promises the trip of a (not completely real) lifetime in a (not completely deluxe) coach.

Their fellow passengers are 21st-century pilgrims, each of them on the tour for their own reasons. There’s a nun hunting for an absent God, a pregnant influencer determined to make her child too famous to be deleted, a crew of horny octogenarians living each day like it’s their last, and a professor on the run from leather-clad sociopaths who take The Matrix as scripture. Each stop on this trip is stranger than the last—a Tunnel outside of time, a zero gravity Geyser, the compound of motivational-speaking avatar—with everyone barreling toward the tour’s iconic final stop Ghost City, where unbeknownst to our travelers the answer to who is running the simulation may await.

When We Were Real is a tour-de-force and exploration of what really matters, even in an artificial world.

Note: Another denied request, but I'm really looking forward to reading this one when it comes out because it sounds insane in the best way, and the premise, while paying homage to The Matrix, is super creative. Also, "a Tunnel outside of time"? "a zero gravity Geyser"? "the compound of motivational-speaking avatar"? "Ghost City"? WOWWOWWOW.

***

1st. Sarah Suk: Meet Me at Blue Hour (YA)

Seventeen-year-old Yena Bae is spending the summer in Busan, South Korea, working at her mom’s memory-erasing clinic. She feels lost and disconnected from people, something she’s felt ever since her best friend, Lucas, moved away four years ago without a word, leaving her in limbo.

Eighteen-year-old Lucas Pak is also in Busan for the summer, visiting his grandpa, who was recently diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. But he isn’t just here for a regular visit—he’s determined to get his beloved grandpa into the new study running at the clinic, a trial program seeking to restore lost memories.

When Yena runs into Lucas again, she’s shocked to see him and even more shocked to discover that he doesn’t remember a thing about her. He’s completely erased her from his memories, and she has no idea why.

As the two reconnect, they unravel the mystery and heartache of what happened between them all those years ago—and must now reckon with whether they can forge a new beginning together.

Note: Yet another denied request. but this one stays on my radar - the romantic angle doesn't bother me too much, since 1) these two used to be best friends, 2) the premise calls to me, and 3) the mystery sounds intriguing.

***

29th. Chuck Wendig: The Staircase in the Woods (Adult)

Five high school friends are bonded by an oath to protect one another no matter what.

Then, on a camping trip in the middle of the forest, they find something extraordinary: a mysterious staircase to nowhere.

One friend walks up—and never comes back down. Then the staircase disappears.

Twenty years later, the staircase has reappeared. Now the group returns to find the lost boy—and what lies beyond the staircase in the woods...

Note: I got an ARC of this one, and despite some hiccups, it didn't disappoint! Super dark, super trippy, super engrossing. Review to come around pub date.

***

MAY

6th. Mira Grant: Overgrowth (YA)

This is just a story. It can't hurt you anymore.

Since she was three years old, Anastasia Miller has been telling anyone who would listen that she's an alien disguised as a human being, and that the armada that left her on Earth is coming for her. Since she was three years old, no one has been willing to listen.

Now, with an alien signal from the stars being broadcast around the world, humanity is finally starting to realize that it's already been warned, and it may be too late. The invasion is coming, Stasia's biological family is on the way to bring her home, and very few family reunions are willing to cross the gulf of space for just one misplaced child.

What happens when you know what’s coming, and just refuse to listen?

Note: And just like that, we get a new Seanan McGuire book AND a new Mira Grant book in the space of three months! (For the two or three of you who don't know it yet: Mira Grant is one of Seanan McGuire's pen names). My ARC request wasn't approved, but I'm going to buy the hell out of this one (apparently, it doesn't include adoptive siblings in a sexual relationship, which greatly helps. Yeah, I'm still salty about the Newsflesh series. Yeah, I still love Grant/McGuire, and I'm fairly sure she will never pull such a stunt on us again...right? 😬).

***

6th. Nova Ren Suma: Wake the Wild Creatures (YA)

Three years ago, Talia lived happily in the ruins of the Neves, a once-grand hotel in the wilds of the Catskill Mountains, with her mother Pola and their community of like-minded women. Some came to the Neves to escape cruel men, others to hide from the law, but all found safety and connection in their haven high above civilization, cloaked by a mysterious mist that kept intruders away. But as their numbers grew, complications followed, and everything came crashing down the night electric lights pierced the forest. Uniformed men arrested Pola, calling her a murderer and a fugitive, and Talia was taken away. 

Now sixteen, Talia has been forced to live with family she barely knows and fit into a world scarred by misogyny, capitalism, disconnection from nature...everything the women of the Neves stood against. She has one goal: to return to the Neves. But as Talia awaits a signal from her mother, questions arise. Who betrayed her community, and what is she avoiding about her own role in its collapse? Is it truly magic that keeps the hotel so hidden? And what does it mean to embrace being her mother’s daughter? With the help of an unexpected ally, Talia must find her way to answers, face a mother who’s often kept her at arm’s length, and try to reach the refuge she lost—if the mist hasn’t swallowed her path home.

Fierce and lyrical, unsettling and tender, Wake the Wild Creatures marks the long-awaited return of one of the most distinctive voices in young adult literature. 

Note: Gah, I've been waiting for a new Ren Suma book for SEVEN YEARS. I love her. Even if EW doesn't approve my request, I'll buy a copy as soon as it comes out. I don't even need to know what it's about (though, well, of course I devoured the blurb, and it ticks a lot of great boxes).

***

20th. Dean Koontz: Going Home in the Dark (Adult)

As kids, outcasts Rebecca, Bobby, Spencer, and Ernie were inseparable friends in the idyllic town of Maple Grove. Three left to pursue lofty dreams―and achieved them. Only Ernie never left. When he falls into a coma, his three amigos feel an urgent need to return home. Don’t they remember people lapsing into comas back then? And those people always awoke…didn’t they?

After two decades, not a lot has changed in Maple Grove, especially Ernie’s obnoxious, scary mother. But Rebecca, Bobby, and Spencer begin to remember a hulking, murderous figure and weirdness piled on mystery that they were made to forget. As Ernie sinks deeper into darkness, something strange awaits any friend who tries to save him.

For Rebecca, Bobby, and Spencer, time is running out to remember the terrors of the past in a perfect town where nothing is what it seems. For Maple Grove, it’s a chance to have the “four amigos,” as they once called themselves, back in its grasp.

Note: I call this trope "estranged childhood friends reunite to get closure and defeat an old evil" (oh, and usually also, "to save an old pal or discover what happened to them when they were kids/teens"). I love it to pieces - though I'm starting to get annoyed that there's always only one female character in these friend groups...at least when the author is male. Anyway - this one isn't on NG or EW yet...what gives? Not that I think the publishers would approve little me for it, what with it being, um, Koontz? I mean, I've never read anything by him, but he's supposed to be huge? Have you ever read his books?

***

20th. Ryan Leslie: The Garden of Before (Adult)

"That's what happens here, Paul. Every power has its price. It always gets worse."

For Paul Prentice things have gotten much worse. His house was destroyed in the battle with the Koŝmaro. He's on thin ice at his job, where instead of working he loses himself in the Between's computer game, trying in vain to find explanations. His best friend Jay has transformed into a shadowy killer. Corinne and Supriya have vanished. And it appears his wife, Julie, has finally had enough and left him.

Alone and near ruin, Paul receives a familiar visitor with a dire message: they are all back in the Between. Hunted, captured, doomed. For Paul, still wearing the serĉilo's artifact on his wrist, escape was never an option. The game must be played until the end.

In the harrowing conclusion to The Between, Leslie once again invites readers into a mind-twisting world where the most terrifying monsters are the ones let loose inside of us.

Note: Book 2 in The Between duology. I very much enjoyed the first installment (and even more so another book from the same author called Colossus), so I'm looking forward to this one - especially considering I've been salivating to visit the titular Garden since it was first mentioned in Book 1...The author promised to send me an eARC as soon as it will be available, and since he kept his promise with Colossus, I'm sure he will be so kind again.

Last-minute note: the pub date for this one has been pushed to September 23rd! But this post had already gone live when I found out.

***

20th. Dete Meserve: The Memory Collectors (Adult)

What would you do if you could spend an hour in your past? Four strangers in the beach town of Ventura, California are about to find out. 

Elizabeth aches for one more precious hour with her son who died in a senseless accident. Andy is desperate to find his first love who vanished after a whirlwind romance. Logan craves the rush of surfing and mountain climbing, yearning to reclaim the freedom he lost after a misstep landed him in a wheelchair. Brooke is looking for an hour of relief from the guilt of an unforgivable mistake.

Enter Aeon Expeditions, the groundbreaking time travel invention of Mark Saunders—which allows some lucky clients  the chance to spend an hour in their past. Even though Aeon’s technology ensures time travel can’t alter the future, all four clients, including Mark’s ex-wife Elizabeth, yearn to revisit the hour that changed their lives forever. 

But when their “hour” extends beyond sixty minutes, they find themselves stranded in the past. As their paths intertwine unexpectedly, they unearth shocking secrets hidden in the shadows of their shared All their lives were shattered the same night on a secluded highway by the beach. As they delve into the hidden truths of that pivotal hour, a startling revelation emerges. They were not alone. Someone else was present, harboring deadly intentions.

The Memory Collectors is a heart-wrenching, genre-bending novel brimming with hope, grief and second chances.

Note: First off, I got an ARC! Secondly, good grief, as much as I love supernatural horror/magical realism, I was missing sci-fi SO MUCH...but since for me sci-fi=time travel (mostly), I hadn't gotten the chance to read in this genre for ages. And voilà, this year, there have been at least two time-travel books for me to look forward to (see Fracassi above) already...and I got both!

***

20th. Jenny Morris: An Ethical Guide to Murder (Adult)

Thea has a secret.

She can tell how long someone has left to live just by touching them.

Not only that, but she can transfer life from one person to another – something she finds out the hard way when her best friend Ruth suffers a fatal head injury on a night out.

Desperate to save her, Thea touches the arm of the man responsible when he comes to check if Ruth is all right. As Ruth comes to, the man quietly slumps to the ground, dead.

Thea realises that she has a godlike power: but despite deciding to use her ability for good, she can’t help but sometimes use it for her own benefit.

Boss annoying her at work? She can take some life from them and give it as a tip to her masseuse for a great job.

Creating an ‘Ethical Guide to Murder’ helps Thea to focus her new-found skills.

But as she embarks on her mission to punish the wicked and give the deserving more time, she finds that it isn’t as simple as she first thought.

How can she really know who deserves to die, and can she figure out her own rules before Ruth’s borrowed time runs out?

Note: OK, the UK version has already come out (in January), but I listed the book here because it's scheduled for May in the US. EW request denied...what's new? 🙄

***

Well, that's it for now. Did you enjoy this post? Would you like to participate in the meme on a regular or semi-regular basis, and get emailed the prompt list? Just head over here and fill in Jen's form! (Of course, you can jump in anytime you like - you are under no obligation to actually do all the posts, or even most of them, just because you signed up, and you can remove yourself from the list at any time). And if you're interested in participating in a more casual manner, or only in commenting, here is the TMST prompt list for the month of March:

• March 4th: What are three things you'll never get tired of doing? (a question I submitted)
• March 11th: Have you ever ventured out of your confort zone and ended up having a nice experience? (a question I submitted)
• March 18th: Have you met any bookish/blogging friends in person? (a question I submitted - reworded for the better 🙂)
• March 25th: Are you satisfied with your blog? (a question I submitted - reworded in collaboration with Jen!)

I'll be back for the meme on March 25th, with a recap post where I'll reply to all the March questions in brief, copying Karen's idea. But in the meantime, I'll visit your blogs and read/comment on your answers!

Now tell me something...which spring books are on your TBR list?