Start of a Chapter | April TBR Pile ๐Ÿ“š

It’s finally April and the sun is started to come out more and more in England, and I can not WAIT until I can have my little walks and wanders to find the best spot to sit and read for a bit. This month I’m trying to read a bit more than I normally would before it starts getting busier at work – and I’m trying to make the most of lighter nights by making plans which I can read at or around.

City of Last Chances By Adrian Tchaikovsky

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There has always been a darkness to Ilmar, but never more so than now. The city chafes under the heavy hand of the Palleseen occupation, the choke-hold of its criminal underworld, the boot of its factory owners, the weight of its wretched poor and the burden of its ancient curse.
What will be the spark that lights the conflagration?
Despite the city’s refugees, wanderers, murderers, madmen, fanatics and thieves, the catalyst, as always, will be the Anchorwood โ€“ that dark grove of trees, that primeval remnant, that portal, when the moon is full, to strange and distant shores.

Ilmar, some say, is the worst place in the world and the gateway to a thousand worse places.

Ilmar,
City of Long Shadows.
City of Bad Decisions.
City of Last Chances.

The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi by S.A. Chakraborty

Amina al-Sirafi should be content. After a storied and scandalous career as one of the Indian Oceanโ€™s most notorious pirates, sheโ€™s survived backstabbing rogues, vengeful merchant princes, several husbands, and one actual demon to retire peacefully with her family to a life of piety, motherhood, and absolutely nothing that hints of the supernatural.

But when sheโ€™s tracked down by the obscenely wealthy mother of a former crewman, sheโ€™s offered a job no bandit could refuse: retrieve her comradeโ€™s kidnapped daughter for a kingly sum. The chance to have one last adventure with her crew, do right by an old friend, and win a fortune that will secure her familyโ€™s future forever? It seems like such an obvious choice that it must be Godโ€™s will.

Yet the deeper Amina dives, the more it becomes alarmingly clear thereโ€™s more to this job, and the girlโ€™s disappearance, than she was led to believe. For thereโ€™s always risk in wanting to become a legend, to seize one last chance at glory, to savor just a bit more powerโ€ฆ and the price might be your very soul.

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The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson

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What if the whole world were a dead, blasted wasteland?

Mistborn
For a thousand years the ash fell and no flowers bloomed. For a thousand years the Skaa slaved in misery and lived in fear. For a thousand years the Lord Ruler, the “Sliver of Infinity,” reigned with absolute power and ultimate terror, divinely invincible. Then, when hope was so long lost that not even its memory remained, a terribly scarred, heart-broken half-Skaa rediscovered it in the depths of the Lord Ruler’s most hellish prison. Kelsier “snapped” and found in himself the powers of a Mistborn. A brilliant thief and natural leader, he turned his talents to the ultimate caper, with the Lord Ruler himself as the mark.

Kelsier recruited the underworld’s elite, the smartest and most trustworthy allomancers, each of whom shares one of his many powers, and all of whom relish a high-stakes challenge. Then Kelsier reveals his ultimate dream, not just the greatest heist in history, but the downfall of the divine despot.

But even with the best criminal crew ever assembled, Kel’s plan looks more like the ultimate long shot, until luck brings a ragged girl named Vin into his life. Like him, she’s a half-Skaa orphan, but she’s lived a much harsher life. Vin has learned to expect betrayal from everyone she meets. She will have to learn trust if Kel is to help her master powers of which she never dreamed.

The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang

When Rin aced the Kejuโ€”the Empire-wide test to find the most talented youth to learn at the Academiesโ€”it was a shock to everyone: to the test officials, who couldnโ€™t believe a war orphan from Rooster Province could pass without cheating; to Rinโ€™s guardians, who believed theyโ€™d finally be able to marry her off and further their criminal enterprise; and to Rin herself, who realized she was finally free of the servitude and despair that had made up her daily existence. That she got into Sinegardโ€”the most elite military school in Nikanโ€”was even more surprising.

But surprises arenโ€™t always good.

Because being a dark-skinned peasant girl from the south is not an easy thing at Sinegard. Targeted from the outset by rival classmates for her color, poverty, and gender, Rin discovers she possesses a lethal, unearthly powerโ€”an aptitude for the nearly-mythical art of shamanism. Exploring the depths of her gift with the help of a seemingly insane teacher and psychoactive substances, Rin learns that gods long thought dead are very much aliveโ€”and that mastering control over those powers could mean more than just surviving school.

For while the Nikara Empire is at peace, the Federation of Mugen still lurks across a narrow sea. The militarily advanced Federation occupied Nikan for decades after the First Poppy War, and only barely lost the continent in the Second. And while most of the people are complacent to go about their lives, a few are aware that a Third Poppy War is just a spark away . . .

Rinโ€™s shamanic powers may be the only way to save her people. But as she finds out more about the god that has chosen her, the vengeful Phoenix, she fears that winning the war may cost her humanity . . . and that it may already be too late.

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Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

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This morning, Kady thought breaking up with Ezra was the hardest thing sheโ€™d have to do. This afternoon, her planet was invaded.

The year is 2575, and two rival mega-corporations are at war over a planet thatโ€™s little more than a speck at the edge of the universe. Now with enemy fire raining down on them, Kady and Ezra โ€” who are barely even talking to each otherโ€”are forced to evacuate with a hostile warship in hot pursuit.

But their problems are just getting started. A plague has broken out and is mutating with terrifying results; the fleetโ€™s AI may actually be their enemy; and nobody in charge will say whatโ€™s really going on. As Kady hacks into a web of data to find the truth, itโ€™s clear the only person who can help her is the ex-boyfriend she swore sheโ€™d never speak to again.

Told through a fascinating dossier of hacked documents โ€” including emails, maps, files, IMs, medical reports, interviews, and more โ€”ย Illuminaeย is the first book in a heart-stopping trilogy about lives interrupted, the price of truth, and the courage of everyday heroes.

The Beach by Alex Garland

Richard lands in East Asia in search of an earthly utopia. In Thailand, he is given a map promising an unknown island, a secluded beach – and a new way of life. What Richard finds when he gets there is breathtaking: more extraordinary, more frightening than his wildest dreams.

But how long can paradise survive here on Earth? And what lengths will Richard go to in order to save it?

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Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon

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For twenty years Claire Randall has kept her secrets. But now she is returning with her grown daughter to Scotland’s majestic mist-shrouded hills. Here Claire plans to reveal a truth as stunning as the events that gave it birth: about the mystery of an ancient circle of standing stones …about a love that transcends the boundaries of time …and about James Fraser, a Scottish warrior whose gallantry once drew a young Claire from the security of her century to the dangers of his ….

Now a legacy of blood and desire will test her beautiful copper-haired daughter, Brianna, as Claire’s spellbinding journey of self-discovery continues in the intrigue-ridden Paris court of Charles Stuart …in a race to thwart a doomed Highlands uprising …and in a desperate fight to save both the child and the man she loves….

Chloe by Freya North

Chloรซ Cadwallerโ€™s godmotherโ€™s dying wish was for her goddaughter to travel the four countries of the United Kingdom โ€“ one in each season of the year. Join Chloรซ on the adventure of a lifetime as she learns to celebrate the beauty of Britain and discover love, lust, life (and a man for each season).

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Not all those who wander are lost

Becky, a book enthusiast, shares her love for literature and lifestyle through Uptown Oracle, blending creativity with her expertise in digital marketing.






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