In 1812 Russia, the exiled second son of the Tsar and his lover come under the sway of a magnetic woman who may be more than what she seems. As she drives the lovers toward conflict with the throne, they fall into collaboration with a revolutionary faction organizing an uprising for workers’ rights in St. Petersburg.
LET THE DEAD BURY THE DEAD
by Allison Epstein
Doubleday, 2023
(via JABberwocky)
Russia, 1812. The war with Napoleon is over, and Imperial Army Captain Aleksandr Nikolaevich is returning home to Tsarskoe Selo, the imperial summer palace, where Prince Felix, the tsar’s second son and Sasha’s sometime lover, holds court. But the reunion he planned goes awry when Sasha saves a woman lying unconscious in the snow and carries her into the palace, only to discover she’s not quite a woman at all.
When Sasha and Felix watch Sofia transform herself into an owl, their reactions sunder their relationship. Sasha, who remembers the stories of the vila and the ways they torment humans, is terrified, but Felix is enchanted. And when Sofia shows him visions of the destruction his father’s war has wrought, for the first time in his life Felix feels a sense of responsibility. With a fire burning for change and his father unwilling to listen, Felix follows Sofia to a rebellion brewing among the working class of Saint Petersburg, where he finds community and purpose. But Sasha has orders to bring him back at any cost, and Sofia has motivations of her own. Felix might be the key to peaceful change – but he also might be the spark that ignites Saint Petersburg.
Allison Epstein earned her M.F.A. in fiction from Northwestern University and a B.A. in creative writing and Renaissance literature from the University of Michigan. A Michigan native, she now lives in Chicago, where she works as an editor. When not writing, she enjoys good theater, bad puns, and fancy jackets. She is the author of A Tip for the Hangman.
All legends are born of truths. And just as much lies. These are mine. Judge me for what you will. But you will hear my story first.
R.R. Virdi
The United States of America is a crumbling republic. With the value of the dollar imploding, the government floundering, and national outrage and resentment growing by the hour, a rebellion has caught fire. The Revolutionary Front, led by Joseph Graham, has taken control of Salt Lake City.
k star who leaves Enugu City to attend university and escape his overbearing sisters. He carries the weight of their lofty expectations, the shame of facing himself, and the haunting memory of a mother he never knew. It’s his first semester and pressures aside, August is making friends, doing well in his classes. He even almost has a girlfriend. There’s only one problem: he can’t stop thinking about Segun, an openly gay student who works at a local cybercafé. Segun carries his own burdens and has been wounded in too many ways. When he meets August, their connection is undeniable, but Segun is reluctant to open himself up to August. He wants to love and be loved by a man who is comfortable in his own skin, who will see and hold and love Segun, exactly as he is.
Anora Silby can see the dead and turn spirits into gold coins, two things she would prefer to keep secret as she tries to lead a normal life at her new school. After all, she didn’t change her identity for nothing. Hiding her weirdness is just one of many challenges. By the end of her first day, she’s claimed the soul of a dead girl on campus and lost the coin. Turns out, the coin gives others the ability to steal souls, and when a classmate ends up dead, there’s no mistaking the murder weapon. Navigating the loss of her Poppa, the mistrust of her mother, the attention of gorgeous and enigmatic Shy, and Roundtable, an anonymous student gossip app threatening to expose her, are hard enough. Now she must find the person who stole her coin before more lives are lost, but that means making herself a target for the Order, an organization that governs the dead on Earth―and they want Anora and her powers for themselves.