2020 has been A Year™, and I sort of might have had a teensy tumble off the reading book wagon.

I’m behind, okay? Desperately so. Everything derailed about mid-year, and while there are some super exciting things coming up in my future, I can’t deny the fact that my reading intentions have been … waylaid. Kidnapped. Tied up and left on the train track? Someone save them! *gasp*

Today’s Top Ten Tuesday is books on my winter TBR, and since I want to close out 2020 right (hey … everything else has gone wrong, why not at least finish right?!) I want to take the opportunity to try to catch up on review requests.

I took them with the best of intentions, of course, and I’m still super excited to read them! I just … haven’t. Now that I’ve officially finished all the blog tours I signed up for this year, I want to take the time to try to catch up on these review requests and overdue ARCs, because they sound absolutely fantastic, and I can’t wait to dive in!

Transfer From Alcatraz

The Private Eye
Caitlin “Red” Raeburn – ex-cop, mom, art lover and owner of the Raeburn Detective agency.

The Client
“I was involved in the deaths of eight men over fifty years ago.” Red is asked to find the evidence that will prove the historic events occurred.

The San Francisco 69ers
Red is assisted by her friends in the only LGBT motorcycle club in the world.

The Case
What seemed like a routine case of background research soon turns into an action-packed search for the truth.

Faced with a warning to let the past stay buried, Red vows to follow her heart and find justice for the dead.

I’m not even gonna lie, I am super late on this review. Does my intention of picking it up on Kindle Unlimited make up for that? Probably not, but that’s what I’m going with. 2020 hasn’t really been my year for mysteries and thrillers, and I’m not sure why, because I love them? This one sounds great, though, and it mixes some character tropes I love with a mystery, so I’m looking forward to it!

Death Warden

A teenage assassin. An impossible choice. The fate of everything hangs in the balance…

Sixteen-year-old Reen swore she’d never take another life. Divinely selected to assassinate a few in order to save many, she learned to jump from shadow to shadow and claim her victims without question… until she was ordered to kill the boy she loved. But when an ancient plague returns threatening to infect everyone she knows, she is forced to resume her deadly duties.

Battling a disease that turns people into nightmarish monsters, Reen must track down and terminate those responsible before the city falls, and the evil spreads beyond its borders. But the closer she gets to the source, the more she uncovers sinister secrets that will shake the foundations of her world and everything she believes.

Can Reen defend her realm without losing her soul?

Teenage assassin … enough said! I’m sold! Honestly, this book kind of mixes so many things I love: fantasy, assassins, tough female heroines, secrets, and a plague. So, you know, pretty much everything that made 2020 possible. Sorry, I had to … I’ll … I’ll see myself out. xD

Another one that’s available on Kindle Unlimited, so I’m glad to have the opportunity to support the author in some small way despite my ridiculousness.

May Day

If the murderer you’re tracking is a vampire, then you want a vampire detective. Just maybe not this one.

It’s not that Jack Valentine is bad at her job. The youngest member of Oxford’s Seekers has an impressive track record, but she also has an impressive grudge against the local baron, Killian Drake.

When a human turns up dead on May Morning, she’s determined to pin the murder on Drake. The problem is that none of the evidence points to him. Instead, it leads Jack into a web of conspiracy involving the most powerful people in the country, people to whom Jack has no access. But she knows someone who does.

To get to the truth, Jack will have to partner up with her worst enemy. As long as she can keep her cool, Drake will point her to the ringleaders, she’ll find the murderer and no one else will have to die.

Body bags on standby.

I’ve heard wonderful things about this book! I actually read an excerpt before accepting the review request, and it hooked me right away. I’m sure I’m going to fall in love with these characters! Unfortunately, stuff happened basically right after I accepted this request, and I feel so bad that I’ve left it off for this long. Good things are worth waiting for, though, right?! This one definitely sounds like one I’m going to love!

Orestin’s Own

The veil is thinning. Every day more undead creatures slip into Everra. Soon their most terrifying kin, spawn of the dark goddess Orestin, will emerge to devour all life. Master Historian Mycellane enlists an aging Knight and an inexperienced priestess to join him on a journey to obtain an ancient artifact-one that can bring an end to the incursion. But their salvation lies on the other side of the veil, in the Dead Waste of Myrcantos, and only one person can bring them through: a Myrcantan necromancer who remains loyal to the enemy. The path before them leads through a barren, unforgiving land. Ravenous abominations lurk in the shadows. But the greatest danger to their mission is the hatred and distrust they feel for one another…

Another one for the Kindle Unlimited crowd (you know, just in case that’s you and you’re looking for some good books to read). Necromancy! I’m always a sucker for a good necromancy book. I can’t even remember how this was pitched for the review request except that it involved necromancy (duh!) and I was super excited to read it. Well, I still am, but you know what I mean.

The Mutant Mushroom Takeover

Ever since Magnolia Stone’s scientist dad left Shady Pines to find a new job, Maggie’s been stuck in her gramma’s mobile home with her grumpy older brother, Ezra. Now she’s on a mission to put her family back together by winning the Vitaccino Junior Naturalist Merit Award.

When Maggie and her best friend, Nate, a wannabe YouTube star and alien conspiracy theorist, scout out a rare bioluminescent fungus, Maggie is certain she’s a shoo-in to win. But after animals around town start sprouting unusual growths and Ezra develops a bluish glow and hacking cough, Maggie wonders what they’ve really stumbled onto.

As things in Shady Pines become stranger and more dangerous, and conversations with her dad get complicated, Maggie must use her scientific smarts and Nate’s impressive knowledge of all things spooky to put things back in order and prevent these peculiar glowing mushrooms from taking over their home.

This lateness isn’t my fault! Okay, well it’s sort of my fault. Minion wanted to read this one with me, so I held off on reading it … and then her reading sort of tanked. I mean, I can’t complain too much because she’s been spending a lot of time drawing and has gotten pretty good at it, but still. That means I need to go ahead and read it solo, but I held off in the hopes that she’d change her mind, since I think it’d be a fun one to read together. Ah well. The whims of a nine-year-old, right? She’s already told me that when I finish, I can just put it on her bookshelf and she’ll “get to it”. xD Goodness, she’s a mini me.

The Damsel

After a hijacking attempt damages their decrepit Black Sun 490 freighter, Snake and his boss are desperate for cash.

Enter Carla, a gorgeous mercenary bad girl with a job offer that seems too good to be true. Unfortunately for him, while Snake is convinced she’s stringing them along to their deaths, he’s not the one in charge.

The job gets dicey in a hurry, and it doesn’t take him long to figure out a fatal blow is coming. He’s just not sure if it will come from the pirates that haunt the nav lanes, knife-wielding goons looking for revenge, Carla herself, or the cheap vodka he drinks to stay sane.

If Snake’s going to make it out alive, he’ll need every bit of his quick wit—and an even quicker trigger finger.

I’ll admit that this doesn’t sound like the normal book I read, does it? These characters, though, sound like they’re after my own heart! Since I read a lot of really long, dark fantasy books, I thought it’d be nice to branch out a little, and this has some character tropes that I love. Plus, a little rough-and-tumble adventure sure sounds like it’ll hit the spot! (Oh, and sarcasm. These characters definitely have that going on, and it’s always a win!)

Subversive

In an America controlled by wizards and 100 years behind on women’s rights, Beatrix Harper counts herself among the resistance—the Women’s League for the Prohibition of Magic. Then Peter Blackwell, the only wizard her town has ever produced, unexpectedly returns home and presses her into service as his assistant.

Beatrix fears he wants to undermine the League. His real purpose is far more dangerous for them both.

Subversive is the first novel in the Clandestine Magic trilogy, set in a warped 21st century that will appeal to fans of gaslamp fantasy.

Yet another book available on Kindle Unlimited! (Wink wink, nudge nudge). I actually did read the first chapter of this and immediately fell in love! The characters! The banter! The alternate history with magic (which, let’s face it, is one of my all-time favorite historical fiction tropes right now). Definitely looking forward to picking this one up, and it’s giving me vibes very similar to Charlie N. Holmberg books, which I’ve really enjoyed this year!

Dread Pirate Arcanist

Pirates. Griffins. A lost treasure worth killing for.

While protecting the newborn griffins on the Isle of Landin, Volke Savan and his adopted sister, Illia, run afoul of the Dread Pirate Calisto, the same cutthroat who carved out Illia’s right eye. As a master manticore arcanist, Calisto’s strength and brutality are unrivaled, so when Illia suggests they bring him to justice, Volke wonders if they’ll have what it takes to fight the corsairs on the high seas.

And again with the Kindle Unlimited! Actually, I believe most of this series is on Kindle Unlimited, which is lucky for me. I was fortunate enough to be part of a TheWriteReads blog tour for the first book in this series, Knightmare Arcanist, and absolutely loved it! I’ve been meaning to continue on with the series and just haven’t had a chance, but I’d really like to pick up the second book (and maybe the third and fourth?!) this winter while I still have Kindle Unlimited!

The Bone Ships

Two nations at war. A prize beyond compare.

For generations, the Hundred Isles have built their ships from the bones of ancient dragons to fight an endless war.

The dragons disappeared, but the battles for supremacy persisted.

Now the first dragon in centuries has been spotted in far-off waters, and both sides see a chance to shift the balance of power in their favour. Because whoever catches it will win not only glory, but the war.

If I’m honest, I have to read this and Call of the Bone Ships, because I’m double the slacker. This was one of my most anticipated books last year, and the sequel was one of my most anticipated books this year. So what’s the hold up? I don’t know, honestly. It’s even got DRAGONS. It’s literally perfect on paper. This one I think is just a case of me talking it up so much in my mind that I’m afraid the hype will let me down. Which is silly because so many people with similar reading tastes have told me it’s wonderful.

The Wolf in the Whale

A sweeping tale of clashing cultures, warring gods, and forbidden love: In 1000 AD, a young Inuit shaman and a Viking warrior become unwilling allies as war breaks out between their peoples and their gods-one that will determine the fate of them all.

“There is a very old story, rarely told, of a wolf that runs into the ocean and becomes a whale.”

Born with the soul of a hunter and the spirit of the Wolf, Omat is destined to follow in her grandfather’s footsteps-invoking the spirits of the land, sea, and sky to protect her people.

But the gods have stopped listening and Omat’s family is starving. Alone at the edge of the world, hope is all they have left.

Desperate to save them, Omat journeys across the icy wastes, fighting for survival with every step. When she meets a Viking warrior and his strange new gods, they set in motion a conflict that could shatter her world…or save it.

This is a very overdue read, but it’s one that I think I’m going to love! I was really looking forward to it last year, and I think I’m actually going to go ahead and buy it to read. It’s based on Inuit mythology, which is so rare to see in books that it caught my attention right away! I’ve heard wonderful things about it, and I definitely want to give it a read finally. Like I said before … good things are worth waiting for, right?!

What are some books on your winter TBR?

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