July’s here (how?!) and with it comes a new batch of anticipated releases for us to add to our TBRs! At this point I think that I need to begin planning for finishing my TBR in the afterlife… do you think I could be buried with all of my books? I swear the publishing gods keep raining down book-shaped blessings, and I’m not mad about it. I just wish I had the ability to read all the things!
Think of the Reader Voracious Anticipated Reads as a list of noteworthy books coming up for publication. These posts focus on books from my preferred genres (fantasy, science fiction, mystery/thriller in YA & adult) but are by no means a representation of everything being published. There’s no way I will be able to get to all of these books personally, but I think my readers would be interested in them so I want to share and boost.
📝 Related: How I Stay on Top of New Releases – Edelweiss 2.0 Guide
- Books Released on July 6, 2021
- Books Releasing on July 13, 2021
- A Psalm for the Wild-Built (Monk & Robot #1) by Becky Chambers
- The Freedom Race (The Dreambird Chronicles #1) by Lucinda Roy
- Wings of Shadow (Crown of Feathers #3) by Nicki Pau Preto
- The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix
- When All the Girls are Sleeping by Emily Arsenault
- The Taking of Jake Livingston by Ryan Douglass
- Books Releasing on July 20, 2021
- Books Releasing on July 27, 2021
- Let’s Chat!
Books Released on July 6, 2021
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It Ends in Fire by Andrew Shvarts
Publisher: Jimmy Patterson | Age Range: Young Adult | Genre: Dark Fantasy | Pages: 384
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ALKA CHELRAZI IS ON A MISSION:1. Infiltrate Blackwater Academy
2. Win the Great Game
3. Burn Wizard society to the ground
As a child, Alka witnessed her parents’ brutal murder at the hands of Wizards before she was taken in by an underground rebel group.
Now, Alka is deep undercover at the most prestigious school of magic in the Republic: Blackwater Academy, a place where status is everything, where decadent galas end in blood-splattered duels, where every student has their own agenda. To survive, Alka will have to lie, cheat, kill, and use every trick in her spy’s toolkit. And for the first time in her life, the fiercely independent Alka will have to make friends in order to recruit the misfits and the outcasts into her motley rebellion.
But even as she draws closer to victory — to vengeance — she sinks deeper into danger as suspicious professors and murderous rivals seek the traitor in their midst, and dark revelations unravel her resolve. Can Alka destroy the twisted game…without becoming a part of it?
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Six Crimson Cranes (Six Crimson Cranes #1) by Elizabeth Lim
Publisher: Knopf BFYR | Age Range: Young Adult | Genre: Fantasy, Epic | Pages: 464
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Shiori, the only princess of Kiata, has a secret. Forbidden magic runs through her veins. Normally she conceals it well, but on the morning of her betrothal ceremony, Shiori loses control. At first, her mistake seems like a stroke of luck, forestalling the wedding she never wanted, but it also catches the attention of Raikama, her stepmother.Raikama has dark magic of her own, and she banishes the young princess, turning her brothers into cranes, and warning Shiori that she must speak of it to no one: for with every word that escapes her lips, one of her brothers will die.
Penniless, voiceless, and alone, Shiori searches for her brothers, and, on her journey, uncovers a conspiracy to overtake the throne—a conspiracy more twisted and deceitful, more cunning and complex, than even Raikama’s betrayal. Only Shiori can set the kingdom to rights, but to do so she must place her trust in the very boy she fought so hard not to marry. And she must embrace the magic she’s been taught all her life to contain—no matter what it costs her.
✨ You can read an excerpt from Six Crimson Cranes here!
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Books Releasing on July 13, 2021
A Psalm for the Wild-Built (Monk & Robot #1) by Becky Chambers
Publisher: Tor Books | Age Range: Adult | Genre: Science Fiction | Pages: 160
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Hugo Award-winner Becky Chambers’s delightful new series gives us hope for the future.
It’s been centuries since the robots of Earth gained self-awareness and laid down their tools.
Centuries since they wandered, en masse, into the wilderness, never to be seen again.
Centuries since they faded into myth and urban legend.
One day, the life of a tea monk is upended by the arrival of a robot, there to honor the old promise of checking in. The robot cannot go back until the question of “what do people need?” is answered.
But the answer to that question depends on who you ask, and how.
They’re going to need to ask it a lot.
Becky Chambers’ new series asks: in a world where people have what they want, does having more matter?
✨ You can read an excerpt from A Psalm for the Wild-Built here!
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The Freedom Race (The Dreambird Chronicles #1) by Lucinda Roy
Publisher: Tor Books | Age Range: Adult | Genre: Science Fiction | Pages: 416
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The Freedom Race, Lucinda Roy’s explosive first foray into speculative fiction, is a poignant blend of subjugation, resistance, and hope.In the aftermath of a cataclysmic civil war known as the Sequel, ideological divisions among the states have hardened. In the Homestead Territories, an alliance of plantation-inspired holdings, Black labor is imported from the Cradle, and Biracial “Muleseeds” are bred.
Raised in captivity on Planting 437, kitchen-seed Jellybean “Ji-ji” Lottermule knows there is only one way fto escape. She must enter the annual Freedom Race as a runner.
Ji-ji and her friends must exhume a survival story rooted in the collective memory of a kidnapped people and conjure the voices of the dead to light their way home.
✨ You can read an excerpt from The Freedom Race here!
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Wings of Shadow (Crown of Feathers #3) by Nicki Pau Preto
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books | Age Range: Young Adult | Genre: Fantasy | Pages: 640
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In the heart-stopping finale to the Crown of Feathers trilogy, which #1 New York Times bestselling author Kendare Blake calls “absolutely unforgettable,” Veronyka must face her most devastating enemy yet: her own sister.I had a sister, once…
Veronyka is no longer an orphaned stable boy or a nameless Phoenix Rider apprentice: she is the daughter of Pheronia Ashfire, the last queen of the Golden Empire…and the niece of Avalkyra Ashfire, the resurrected rebel queen who tore the empire apart.
We shone brightly, burned fiercely.
Now that the secret is out, everyone at the Eyrie treats Veronyka differently, and with Tristan still a hostage of the scheming Lord Rolan—and Sev with him as a spy—Veronyka feels very much alone. Except for her beloved phoenix, Xephyra, of course, and her new friend, Kade, who has his own reasons for wanting to save Tristan.
Was it always going to come down to this? Sister against sister? Darkness against light?
Veronyka is determined to do whatever it takes to get Tristan back, even if that means revealing her identity to the world and inheriting a throne she’s not sure she wants. But when she discovers that Avalkyra has bonded with a strix—a legendary creature of darkness that feeds off the life force of others—Veronyka realizes she has more to deal with than an encroaching war with the empire. Val is willing to destroy everything to get her revenge on a world that rejected her, and if Veronyka wants to bring peace to the empire and Pyra alike, she must face down her sister once and for all.
The world began with Ashfire queens…perhaps they will also be its destruction.
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The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix
Publisher: Berkley Books | Age Range: Adult | Genre: Horror | Pages: 352
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A fast-paced, thrilling horror novel that follows a group of heroines to die for, from the brilliant New York Times bestselling author of The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires.In horror movies, the final girl is the one who’s left standing when the credits roll. The one who fought back, defeated the killer, and avenged her friends. The one who emerges bloodied but victorious. But after the sirens fade and the audience moves on, what happens to her?
Lynnette Tarkington is a real-life final girl who survived a massacre twenty-two years ago, and it has defined every day of her life since. And she’s not alone. For more than a decade she’s been meeting with five other actual final girls and their therapist in a support group for those who survived the unthinkable, putting their lives back together, piece by piece. That is until one of the women misses a meeting and Lynnette’s worst fears are realized–someone knows about the group and is determined to take their lives apart again, piece by piece.
But the thing about these final girls is that they have each other now, and no matter how bad the odds, how dark the night, how sharp the knife, they will never, ever give up.
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When All the Girls are Sleeping by Emily Arsenault
Publisher: Delacorte Press | Age Range: Young Adult | Genre: Thriller | Pages: 448
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For fans of People Like Us and The Cheerleaders comes an all new psychological suspense novel about one girl’s investigation into her friend’s sudden death and the unsettling possibility that a killer is still on the loose.Windham-Farnswood Academy is beautiful, prestigious, historic–the perfect place for girls to prep for college. But every student knows all is not as it seems. Each January, the Winter Girl comes knocking. She’s the spirit who haunts the old senior dorm, and this year is no exception.
For Haley, the timing couldn’t be worse. This month marks the one-year anniversary of the death of her ex-best friend, Taylor. When a disturbing video of Taylor surfaces, new questions about her death emerge. And it actually looks like Taylor was murdered.
Now, as Haley digs into what really happened last year, her search keeps bringing her back to the Winter Girl. Haley wants to believe ghosts aren’t real, but the clues–and the dark school history she begins to undercover–say otherwise. Now it’s up to her to solve the mystery before history has a chance to repeat itself and another life is taken.
A skillfully plotted mystery, …dark secrets await. –Holly Jackson, #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder on Emily Arsenault’s All the Pretty Things.
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The Taking of Jake Livingston by Ryan Douglass
Publisher: G.P. Putnam’s Sons BFYR | Age Range: Young Adult | Genre: Paranormal | Pages: 256
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Get Out meets Danielle Vega in this YA horror where survival is not a guarantee.Jake Livingston is one of the only Black kids at St. Clair Prep, one of the others being his infinitely more popular older brother. It’s hard enough fitting in but to make matters worse and definitely more complicated, Jake can see the dead. In fact he sees the dead around him all the time. Most are harmless. Stuck in their death loops as they relive their deaths over and over again, they don’t interact often with people. But then Jake meets Sawyer. A troubled teen who shot and killed six kids at a local high school last year before taking his own life. Now a powerful, vengeful ghost, he has plans for his afterlife–plans that include Jake. Suddenly, everything Jake knows about ghosts and the rules to life itself go out the window as Sawyer begins haunting him and bodies turn up in his neighborhood. High school soon becomes a survival game–one Jake is not sure he’s going to win.
Books Releasing on July 20, 2021
The Past is Red by Catherynne M. Valente
Publisher: Tor Books | Age Range: Adult | Genre: Science Fiction | Pages: 160
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Catherynne M. Valente, the bestselling and award-winning creator of Space Opera and The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland returns with The Past is Red, the enchanting, dark, funny, angry story of a girl who made two terrible mistakes: she told the truth and she dared to love the world.The future is blue. Endless blue…except for a few small places that float across the hot, drowned world left behind by long-gone fossil fuel-guzzlers. One of those patches is a magical place called Garbagetown.
Tetley Abednego is the most beloved girl in Garbagetown, but she’s the only one who knows it. She’s the only one who knows a lot of things: that Garbagetown is the most wonderful place in the world, that it’s full of hope, that you can love someone and 66% hate them all at the same time.
But Earth is a terrible mess, hope is a fragile thing, and a lot of people are very angry with her. Then Tetley discovers a new friend, a terrible secret, and more to her world than she ever expected.
✨ You can read an excerpt from The Past is Red here!
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She Who Became the Sun (The Radiant Emperor #1) by Shelley Parker-Chan
Publisher: Tor Books | Age Range: Adult | Genre: Fantasy | Pages: 46
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Mulan meets The Song of Achilles in Shelley Parker-Chan’s She Who Became the Sun, a bold, queer, and lyrical reimagining of the rise of the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty from an amazing new voice in literary fantasy.To possess the Mandate of Heaven, the female monk Zhu will do anything
“I refuse to be nothing…”
In a famine-stricken village on a dusty yellow plain, two children are given two fates. A boy, greatness. A girl, nothingness…
In 1345, China lies under harsh Mongol rule. For the starving peasants of the Central Plains, greatness is something found only in stories. When the Zhu family’s eighth-born son, Zhu Chongba, is given a fate of greatness, everyone is mystified as to how it will come to pass. The fate of nothingness received by the family’s clever and capable second daughter, on the other hand, is only as expected.
When a bandit attack orphans the two children, though, it is Zhu Chongba who succumbs to despair and dies. Desperate to escape her own fated death, the girl uses her brother’s identity to enter a monastery as a young male novice. There, propelled by her burning desire to survive, Zhu learns she is capable of doing whatever it takes, no matter how callous, to stay hidden from her fate.
After her sanctuary is destroyed for supporting the rebellion against Mongol rule, Zhu takes the chance to claim another future altogether: her brother’s abandoned greatness.
✨ You can read an excerpt from She Who Became the Sun here!
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Books Releasing on July 27, 2021
Red Wolf by Rachel Vincent
Publisher: HarperTeen | Age Range: Young Adult | Genre: Fantasy, Retelling | Pages: 368
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This high stakes, pacey reimagining of Little Red Riding Hood is perfect for fans of Stephanie Garber and Megan Spooner.For as long as sixteen-year-old Adele can remember the village of Oakvale has been surrounding by the dark woods—a forest filled with terrible monsters that light cannot penetrate. Like every person who grows up in Oakvale she has been told to steer clear of the woods unless absolutely necessary.
But unlike her neighbors in Oakvale, Adele has a very good reason for going into the woods. Adele is one of a long line of guardians, women who are able to change into wolves and who are tasked with the job of protecting their village while never letting any of the villagers know of their existence.
But when following her calling means abandoning the person she loves, the future she imagined for herself, and her values she must decide how far she is willing to go to keep her neighbors safe.
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They’ll Never Catch Us by Jessica Goodman
Publisher: Razorbill | Age Range: Young Adult | Genre: Thriller | Pages: 336
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From rising star Jessica Goodman, author of They Wish They Were Us, comes a new fast-paced thriller about two sisters vying for the top spot on their cross-country team–the only way out of their stifling small town. But their dreams are suddenly thrown into peril when a new girl threatens to take away everything they’ve worked for… until she disappears.Stella and Ellie Steckler are only a year apart, but their different personalities make their relationship complicated. Stella is single-minded, driven, and she keeps to herself. Cross-country running is her life and she won’t let anything get in the way of being the best. Her sister Ellie is a talented runner too, but she also lets herself have fun. She has friends. She goes to parties. She has a life off the course.
The sisters do have one thing in common, though: the new girl, Mila Keene. Both Stecklers’ lives are upended when Mila comes to town. Mila was the top runner on her team back home and at first, Ellie and Stella view her as a threat. But soon Ellie can’t help but be drawn to her warm, charming personality. After her best friend moved away and her first boyfriend betrayed her, Ellie’s been looking for a friend. In a moment of weakness, she even shares her darkest secret with Mila. For her part, Stella finds herself noticing the ways she and Mila are similar. Mila is smart and strong–she’s someone Stella can finally connect with. As the two get closer, Stella becomes something she vowed she’d never be: distracted.
With regionals approaching and college scouts taking notice, the pressure is on. Each girl has their future on the line and they won’t let friendships get in their way. But then, suddenly, Mila goes out on a training run and never returns. No one knows what happened, but all eyes are on the Steckler sisters.
✨ You can read an excerpt from They’ll Never Catch Us here!
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Small Favors by Erin A. Craig
Publisher: Delacorte Press | Age Range: Young Adult | Genre: Dark Fantasy | Pages: 480
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From the New York Times bestselling author of House of Salt and Sorrows comes a mesmerizing and chilling novel that’s The Village meets Needful Things about what lurks in the shadows of the people you think you know.“Unique, enchanting, and haunting.”—Brigid Kemmerer, NYT bestselling author of the Cursebreaker series
Ellerie Downing is waiting for something to happen. Life in isolated Amity Falls, surrounded by an impenetrable forest, has a predictable sameness. Her days are filled with tending to her family’s beehives, chasing after her sisters, and dreaming of bigger things while her twin, Samuel, is free to roam as he wishes.
Early town settlers fought off monstrous creatures in the woods, and whispers that the creatures still exist keep the Downings and their neighbors from venturing too far. When some townsfolk go missing on a trip to fetch supplies, a heavy unease settles over the Falls.
Strange activities begin to plague the town, and as the seasons change, it’s clear that something is terribly wrong. The creatures are real, and they’re offering to fulfill the residents’ deepest desires, however grand, for just a small favor. These seemingly trifling demands, however, hide sinister intentions. Soon Ellerie finds herself in a race against time to stop Amity Falls, her family, and the boy she loves from going up in flames.
✨ You can read an excerpt from Small Favors here!
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The publishing industry is always focused on the new and shiny releases, typically ceasing promotion within a week of the book birthday. I hope that this list brought some new books to your attention and I hope you are able to support the ones you’re interested in!
Let’s Chat!
Which books coming out in July are you excited about? What have you read and would recommend? Let’s talk in the comments!
I’m starting The Final Girl Support Group this week, can’t wait!
AHHH I can’t wait to hear your thoughts on it, Tammy!
I love that you make this list. It’s nice to know what’s coming out. I’ve heard good things about Six Crimson Cranes
I’m glad you find this list helpful and hope you enjoyed Six Crimson Cranes as much as I hope to!
So many books coming out in July!! Thank you for putting together this list Kal ❤ I’m especially excited for It Ends in Fire and of course The Taking of Jake Livingston! 🥰
SO many books but thankfully not as many as June… my bank account needs a rest! The Taking of Jake Livingston was such a good book and I have high hopes for It Ends in Fire. Happy reading, Caro!
So many incredible releases this month! 😍 Many of these are on my list too, especially super excited for Small Favors & The Taking of Jake Livingston 👏🏻👏🏻✨
Amazing Post! ❤️
Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoy Jake Livingston as much as I did, Sofi!
i’m so excited for july! there’s so many amazing books coming out!
SO MANY BOOK-SHAPED BLESSINGS!!!
I’m super excited for Six Crimson Cranes and Small Favors as well! Thanks for putting this list together! 🙂
You’re welcome Allison, thanks for stopping by and happy reading!
I’m really looking forward to Red Wolf coming out. It sounds like it has similar vibes to For the Wolf, and I have a feeling I’m really going to like that one. So I hope Red Wolf is going to be just as good.
I am excited about Red Wolf for the same reasons ahaha… I need more For the Wolf vibe books in my life immediately. Hope we both enjoy it!
“At this point I think that I need to begin planning for finishing my TBR in the afterlife… do you think I could be buried with all of my books?”
MOOD! I feel like this would be such a nice way to spend said afterlife, reading all the books and just continuing to add to the never ending TBR. I am looking forward to one day getting to the Six Crimson Cranes, first time I actually read the blurb and it sounds so good! The cover is so pretty too. Ooooo The Freedom Race sounds interesting *shuffles it to the tbr* Also feel like this was yearly reminder that I need to start the Crown of Feathers trilogy *looks sheepish*
Just build me a giant masoleum for me and my books, I’ll read when I’m dead! I also need to start the Crown of Feathers trilogy, so you are in good company lol
I am seeing so many of my to-read books in this list! I am super duper excited for Six Crimson Cranes (I fell in love with Lim’s writing when I read Spin The Dawn; you really should read it!). And I also have Small Favors and They’ll Never Catch Us on my list too!
Ahhh, I will definitely get around to Spin the Dawn sooner or later I PROMISE! I have heard so many good things about it. Happy reading, Tanaz!
A very exciting list of most anticipated reads! She Who Became the Sun definitely caught my eye with that blurb. I’ll be looking forward to thoughts on that by other reads! Thanks for sharing. 😀
She Who Became the Sun looks SO GOOD and I’ve seen some stellar early reviews for it, which makes me even more excited. Thanks for stopping by, Lashaan!