Here you can find young adult SFF book release calendar I prepared for the site, as well as the schedule of my upcoming blog post. I try to include books recommended or blurbed as diverse, especially own voices, books with LGBTQIA+ cast, books with disability representation, and books with non-white cultural setting, but please note that I haven’t read the books included in the calendar as “RELEASE DAY”. These are the books I intended to read and review. Please do contact me if you have any suggestion, especially regarding books to add or to remove from the list. Enjoy!
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RELEASE DAY – Flame in the Mist (Renee Ahdieh)
May 16, 2017
Synopsis:
The daughter of a prominent samurai, Mariko has long known her place—she may be an accomplished alchemist, whose cunning rivals that of her brother Kenshin, but because she is not a boy, her future has always been out of her hands. At just seventeen years old, Mariko is promised to Minamoto Raiden, the son of the emperor’s favorite consort—a political marriage that will elevate her family’s standing. But en route to the imperial city of Inako, Mariko narrowly escapes a bloody ambush by a dangerous gang of bandits known as the Black Clan, who she learns has been hired to kill her before she reaches the palace.
Dressed as a peasant boy, Mariko sets out to infiltrate the ranks of the Black Clan, determined to track down the person responsible for the target on her back. But she’s quickly captured and taken to the Black Clan’s secret hideout, where she meets their leader, the rebel ronin Takeda Ranmaru, and his second-in-command, his best friend Okami. Still believing her to be a boy, Ranmaru and Okami eventually warm to Mariko, impressed by her intellect and ingenuity. As Mariko gets closer to the Black Clan, she uncovers a dark history of secrets, of betrayal and murder, which will force her to question everything she’s ever known.
Category: young adult | fantasy | romance | retelling | POC main character | Asian setting | Japan setting