It’s a new year and with it comes a whole new crop of books to anticipate reading. It’s an opportunity to add your your ever-expanding TBR list and discover some new titles to help you meet all those reading challenges. (Are you participating in the Pop Sugar Challenge with Iggle Bookworms?). Here are just a smattering of new books that we are looking forward to in the first half of 2019!

January: THE GILDED WOLVES (The Gilded Wolves, #1) by Roshani Chokshi (1/15)

Paris, 1889: The world is on the cusp of industry and power, and the Exposition Universelle has breathed new life into the streets and dredged up ancient secrets. In this city, no one keeps tabs on secrets better than treasure-hunter and wealthy hotelier, Séverin Montagnet-Alarie. But when the all-powerful society, the Order of Babel, seeks him out for help, Séverin is offered a treasure that he never imagined: his true inheritance.

To find the ancient artifact the Order seeks, Séverin will need help from a band of experts: An engineer with a debt to pay. A historian who can’t yet go home. A dancer with a sinister past. And a brother in all but blood, who might care too much.

Together, they’ll have to use their wits and knowledge to hunt the artifact through the dark and glittering heart of Paris. What they find might change the world, but only if they can stay alive.

  • MARKED by S. Andrew Swann (Trade Paperback, 1/15)

February: BINTI: THE COMPLETE TRILOGY by Nnedi Okorafor (Hardcover, 2/5)

Collected for the first time in an omnibus, the Hugo- and Nebula-award-winning Binti trilogy, the story of one extraordinary girl’s journey from her home to distant Oomza University.

In her Hugo- and Nebula-winning novella, Nnedi Okorafor introduced us to Binti, a young Himba girl with the chance of a lifetime: to attend the prestigious Oomza University. Despite her family’s concerns, Binti’s talent for mathematics and her aptitude with astrolabes make her a prime candidate to undertake this interstellar journey. But everything changes when the jellyfish-like Medusae attack Binti’s spaceship, leaving her the only survivor. Now, Binti must fend for herself, alone on a ship full of the beings who murdered her crew, with five days until she reaches her destination. There is more to the history of the Medusae—and their war with the Khoush—than first meets the eye. If Binti is to survive this voyage and save the inhabitants of the unsuspecting planet that houses Oomza Uni, it will take all of her knowledge and talents to broker the peace. Collected now for the first time in omnibus form, follow Binti’s story in this groundbreaking sci-fi trilogy.

  • ON THE COME UP by Angie Thomas (2/5)
  • TERMINAL UPRISING by Jim C. Hines (Hardcover, 2/12)
  • THE BEAST’S HEART by Leife Shallcross (Trade Paperback Original, 2/12)
  • GATES OF STONE by Angus Macallan (Trade Paperback Original, 2/19)

March: THE TRUE QUEEN by Zen Cho (Trade Paperback Original, 3/12)

In the follow-up to the “delightful” regency fantasy novel (NPR.org) Sorcerer to the Crown, a young woman with no memories of her past finds herself embroiled in dangerous politics in England and the land of the fae.

When sisters Muna and Sakti wake up on the peaceful beach of the island of Janda Baik, they can’t remember anything, except that they are bound as only sisters can be. They have been cursed by an unknown enchanter, and slowly Sakti starts to fade away. The only hope of saving her is to go to distant Britain, where the Sorceress Royal has established an academy to train women in magic. If Muna is to save her sister, she must learn to navigate high society, and trick the English magicians into believing she is a magical prodigy. As she’s drawn into their intrigues, she must uncover the secrets of her past, and journey into a world with more magic than she had ever dreamed.

  • GINGERBREAD by Helen Oyeyemi (3/5)
  • SUPERMAN: DAWNBREAKER (DC Icons, #4) by Matt de la Pena
  • TITANSHADE by Dan Stout (Hardcover, 3/12)
  • QUEENIE by Candice Carty-Williams (3/19)

April: THE RED SCROLLS OF MAGIC by Cassandra Clare and Wesley Chu (4/2)

From #1 New York Times bestseller Cassandra Clare and award-winner Wesley Chu comes the first book in a new series that follows High Warlock Magnus Bane and Alec Lightwood as they tour the world after the Mortal War. The Red Scrolls of Magic is a Shadowhunters novel.

All Magnus Bane wanted was a vacation—a lavish trip across Europe with Alec Lightwood, the Shadowhunter who against all odds is finally his boyfriend. But as soon as the pair settles in Paris, an old friend arrives with news about a demon-worshipping cult called the Crimson Hand that is bent on causing chaos around the world. A cult that was apparently founded by Magnus himself. Years ago. As a joke.

Now Magnus and Alec must race across Europe to track down the Crimson Hand and its elusive new leader before the cult can cause any more damage. As if it wasn’t bad enough that their romantic getaway has been sidetracked, demons are now dogging their every step, and it is becoming harder to tell friend from foe. As their quest for answers becomes increasingly dire, Magnus and Alec will have to trust each other more than ever—even if it means revealing the secrets they’ve both been keeping

May: THE BRIDE TEST by Helen Hoang (5/7)

Khai Diep has no feelings. Well, he feels irritation when people move his things or contentment when ledgers balance down to the penny, but not big, important emotions—like grief. And love. He thinks he’s defective. His family knows better—that his autism means he just processes emotions differently. When he steadfastly avoids relationships, his mother takes matters into her own hands and returns to Vietnam to find him the perfect bride.

As a mixed-race girl living in the slums of Ho Chi Minh City, Esme Tran has always felt out of place. When the opportunity arises to come to America and meet a potential husband, she can’t turn it down, thinking this could be the break her family needs. Seducing Khai, however, doesn’t go as planned. Esme’s lessons in love seem to be working…but only on herself. She’s hopelessly smitten with a man who’s convinced he can never return her affection.

With Esme’s time in the United States dwindling, Khai is forced to understand he’s been wrong all along. And there’s more than one way to love.

  • ROMANOV by Nadine Brandes (5/7)

June: EMPIRE OF GRASS by Tad Williams

Following on from The Witchwood Crown, Empire of Grass: Book Two of The Last King of Osten Ard continues the story of one of the best loved fantasy epics of all time – Memory, Sorrow and Thorn, the inspiration for Christopher Paolini and George R. R. Martin.

  • BRAZEN AND THE BEAST (The Bareknuckle Bastards, #2) by Sarah MacLean (6/25)

So many new books, so little time!

There are so many more books we are looking forward to that we will continue to highlight more as the year marches on. Until then, let us know what new books are on your must-read list for 2019.

Do you try to plan out your reads for the year? Or do you just play it by ear? Do reading challenges encourage your yearly reads? Or stress you out?