Thursday 26 August 2021

Magical Readathon: Orilium - The Novice Path TBR

Magical Readathon: Orilium - The Novice Path TBR

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Magical Readathon: Orilium - The Novice Path TBR


I've decided to take part in a readathon! I learnt about the Magical Readathon in a Discord group I belong to, and it sounds amazing! It's not just a straight readathon; a fantasy world has been created G of Book Roast, and participants create characters to take part, and reading books completes challenges the characters face within the story. Aeldia is a fully fleshed out fantasy world with various fantasy races with magical powers, and you start off making your way to Orilium, where there's a magical university we will be studying at, and it sounds amazing! It's not quite as complicated as it sounds; The Novice Path, happening throughout September, is a lead in to the bigger readathons that will take place next year, starting in April, and it's an easy introduction. If you're interested, check out the video linked to.

I thought I'd share my TBR here of what I'm hoping to read for The Novice Path!


A book with a map:


The Prison Healer by Lynette NoniThe Prison Healer by Lynette Noni*

Seventeen-year-old Kiva Meridan has spent the last ten years fighting for survival in the notorious death prison, Zalindov, working as the prison healer. When the Rebel Queen is captured, Kiva is charged with keeping the terminally ill woman alive long enough for her to undergo the Trial by Ordeal: a series of elemental challenges against the torments of air, fire, water, and earth, assigned to only the most dangerous of criminals. Then a coded message from Kiva’s family arrives, containing a single order: “Don’t let her die. We are coming.” Aware that the Trials will kill the sickly queen, Kiva risks her own life to volunteer in her place. If she succeeds, both she and the queen will be granted their freedom.

But no one has ever survived. With an incurable plague sweeping Zalindov, a mysterious new inmate fighting for Kiva’s heart, and a prison rebellion brewing, Kiva can’t escape the terrible feeling that her trials have only just begun.

From bestselling author Lynette Noni comes a dark, thrilling YA fantasy perfect for fans of Sarah J. Maas, and Sabaa Tahir.
From StoryGraph.

Bookshop^ | StoryGraph | Goodreads

A book that keeps tempting you (or is on the top of your TBR):


The Witch Haven by Sasha Peyton SmithThe Witch Haven by Sasha Peyton Smith

In 1911 New York City, seventeen-year-old Frances Hallowell spends her days as a seamstress, mourning the mysterious death of her brother months prior. Everything changes when she’s attacked and a man ends up dead at her feet—her scissors in his neck, and she can’t explain how they got there.

Before she can be condemned as a murderess, two cape-wearing nurses arrive to inform her she is deathly ill and ordered to report to Haxahaven Sanitarium. But Frances finds Haxahaven isn’t a sanitarium at all: it’s a school for witches. Within Haxahaven’s glittering walls, Frances finds the sisterhood she craves, but the headmistress warns Frances that magic is dangerous. Frances has no interest in the small, safe magic of her school, and is instead enchanted by Finn, a boy with magic himself who appears in her dreams and tells her he can teach her all she’s been craving to learn, lessons that may bring her closer to discovering what truly happened to her brother.

Frances’s newfound power attracts the attention of the leader of an ancient order who yearns for magical control of Manhattan. And who will stop at nothing to have Frances by his side. Frances must ultimately choose what matters more, justice for her murdered brother and her growing feelings for Finn, or the safety of her city and fellow witches. What price would she pay for power, and what if the truth is more terrible than she ever imagined?
From StoryGraph

StoryGraph | Goodreads

A Standalone:


Medusa by Jessie Burton & Olivia Lomenech GillMedusa by Jessie Burton & Olivia Lomenech Gill*

A dazzling, feminist retelling of Greek myth from the internationally bestselling author of The Miniaturist, stunningly illustrated by Olivia Lomenech Gill.

Exiled to a far-flung island by the whims of the gods, Medusa has little company except the snakes that adorn her head instead of hair. But when a charmed, beautiful boy called Perseus arrives on the island, her lonely existence is disrupted with the force of a supernova, unleashing desire, love and betrayal.

Filled with glorious full-colour illustrations by award-winning Olivia Lomenech Gill, this astonishing retelling of Greek myth is perfect for readers of Circe and The Silence of the Girls. Illuminating the girl behind the legend, it brings alive Medusa for a new generation.
From Goodreads.

Bookshop^ | Goodreads

A book featuring ghosts, a haunted house, or other supernatural elements:


Ghost Wood Song by Erica WatersGhost Wood Song by Erica Waters

Sawkill Girls meets Beautiful Creatures in this lush and eerie debut, where the boundary between reality and nightmares is as thin as the veil between the living and the dead.

If I could have a fiddle made of Daddy’s bones, I’d play it. I’d learn all the secrets he kept.

Shady Grove inherited her father’s ability to call ghosts from the grave with his fiddle, but she also knows the fiddle’s tunes bring nothing but trouble and darkness.

But when her brother is accused of murder, she can’t let the dead keep their secrets.

In order to clear his name, she’s going to have to make those ghosts sing.

Family secrets, a gorgeously resonant LGBTQ love triangle, and just the right amount of creepiness make this young adult debut a haunting and hopeful story about facing everything that haunts us in the dark.
From StoryGraph

Bookshop^ | StoryGraph | Goodreads

A thriller or mystery:


Truly Devious by Maureen JohnsonTruly Devious by Maureen Johnson

Ellingham Academy is a famous private school in Vermont for the brightest thinkers, inventors, and artists. It was founded by Albert Ellingham, an early twentieth century tycoon, who wanted to make a wonderful place full of riddles, twisting pathways, and gardens. “A place,” he said, “where learning is a game.”

Shortly after the school opened, his wife and daughter were kidnapped. The only real clue was a mocking riddle listing methods of murder, signed with the frightening pseudonym “Truly, Devious.” It became one of the great unsolved crimes of American history.

True-crime aficionado Stevie Bell is set to begin her first year at Ellingham Academy, and she has an ambitious plan: She will solve this cold case. That is, she will solve the case when she gets a grip on her demanding new school life and her housemates: the inventor, the novelist, the actor, the artist, and the jokester.

But something strange is happening. Truly Devious makes a surprise return, and death revisits Ellingham Academy. The past has crawled out of its grave. Someone has gotten away with murder.

The two interwoven mysteries of this first book in the Truly Devious series dovetail brilliantly, and Stevie Bell will continue her relentless quest for the murderers in books two and three.
From StoryGraph.

Bookshop^ | StoryGraph | Goodreads

A five-star book prediction:


The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn BarnesThe Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Avery Grambs has a plan for a better future: survive high school, win a scholarship, and get out. But her fortunes change in an instant when billionaire Tobias Hawthorne dies and leaves Avery virtually his entire fortune. The catch? Avery has no idea why - or even who Tobias Hawthorne is.

To receive her inheritance, Avery must move into sprawling, secret passage-filled Hawthorne House, where every room bears the old man's touch - and his love of puzzles, riddles, and codes. Unfortunately for Avery, Hawthorne House is also occupied by the family that Tobias Hawthorne just dispossessed. This includes the four Hawthorne grandsons: dangerous, magnetic, brilliant boys who grew up with every expectation that one day, they would inherit billions.

Heir apparent Grayson Hawthorne is convinced that Avery must be a conwoman, and he's determined to take her down. His brother, Jameson, views her as their grandfather's last hurrah: a twisted riddle, a puzzle to be solved. Caught in a world of wealth and privilege, with danger around every turn, Avery will have to play the game herself just to survive.
From StoryGraph

Bookshop^ | StoryGraph | Goodreads

A book with a school setting:

The Grimrose Girls by Laura PohlThe Grimrose Girls by Laura Pohl*

The Descendants meets Pretty little liars.

Four troubled friends, One murdered girl... and a dark fate that may leave them all doomed.

After the mysterious death of their best friend, Ella, Yuki, and Rory are the talk of their elite school, Grimrose Académie. The police ruled it a suicide, but the trio are determined to find out what really happened.

When Nani Eszes arrives as their newest roommate, it sets into motion a series of events they couldn't have imagined. As the girls retrace their friend's last steps, they uncover dark secrets about themselves and their destinies, discovering they're all cursed to repeat the brutal and gruesome endings to their stories until they can break the cycle.

This contemporary take on classic fairytales reimagines heroines as friends attending the same school. While investigating the murder of their best friend, they uncover connections to their ancient fairytale curses and attempt to forge their own fate before it's too late.
From Goodreads.

Goodreads


And my character prompts!

Background - Wilding: A book largely set in a forest/outside


Dark and Shallow Lies by Ginny Myers SainDark and Shallow Lies by Ginny Myers Sain*

La Cachette, Louisiana, is the worst place to be if you have something to hide.

This tiny town, where seventeen-year-old Grey spends her summers, is the self-proclaimed Psychic Capital of the World—and the place where Elora Pellerin, Grey’s best friend, disappeared six months earlier.

Grey can’t believe that Elora vanished into thin air any more than she can believe that nobody in a town full of psychics knows what happened. But as she digs into the night that Elora went missing, she begins to realize that everybody in town is hiding something—her grandmother Honey; her childhood crush Hart; and even her late mother, whose secrets continue to call to Grey from beyond the grave.

When a mysterious stranger emerges from the bayou—a stormy-eyed boy with links to Elora and the town’s bloody history—Grey realizes that La Cachette’s past is far more present and dangerous than she’d ever understood. Suddenly, she doesn’t know who she can trust. In a town where secrets lurk just below the surface, and where a murderer is on the loose, nobody can be presumed innocent—and La Cachette’s dark and shallow lies may just rip the town apart.
From StoryGraph.

Bookshop^ | StoryGraph | Goodreads

Province - Kerador: A book from an ongoing series


The Hollow Heart by Marie RutkoskiThe Hollow Heart by Marie Rutkoski*

Intrigue, romance, and magic abound in the heart-stopping conclusion to Marie Rutkoski's Forgotten Gods duology.

At the end of The Midnight Lie, Nirrim offered up her heart to the God of Thieves in order to restore her people's memories of their city's history. The Half Kith who once lived imprisoned behind the city's wall now realize that many among them are powerful. Meanwhile, the person Nirrim once loved most, Sid, has returned to her home country of Herran, where she must navigate the politics of being a rogue princess who has finally agreed to do her duty.

In the Herrani court, rumors begin to grow of a new threat rising across the sea, of magic unleashed on the world, and of a cruel, black-haired queen who can push false memories into your mind, so that you believe your dearest friends to be your enemies.

Sid doesn't know that this queen is Nirrim, who seeks her revenge against a world that has wronged her. Can Sid save Nirrim from herself? Does Nirrim even want to be saved? As blood is shed and war begins, Sid and Nirrim find that it might not matter what they want...for the gods have their own plans.
From StoryGraph.

Bookshop^ | StoryGraph | Goodreads

Heritage - Earthling: A book with elemental magic or an element word in the book or series title
Adapted slightly to "a book with something related to an element."


Lakesedge by Lyndall ClipstoneLakesedge by Lyndall Clipstone*

When Violeta Graceling and her younger brother Arien arrive at the haunted Lakesedge estate, they expect to find a monster. Leta knows the terrifying rumors about Rowan Sylvanan, who drowned his entire family when he was a boy. But neither the estate nor the monster are what they seem.

As Leta falls for Rowan, she discovers he is bound to the Lord Under, the sinister death god lurking in the black waters of the lake. A creature to whom Leta is inexplicably drawn... Now, to save Rowan―and herself―Leta must confront the darkness in her past, including unraveling the mystery of her connection to the Lord Under.
From StoryGraph.

Bookshop^ | StoryGraph | Goodreads

Heritage - Elf: A book with moon or stars on the cover or in the title


The Symmetry of Stars by Alex MyersThe Symmetry of Stars by Alex Myers*

Beyond the stars, two gods vie for rule of the world.

One stands for Nature – the belief that everything is stamped in flesh from the start. The other, Nurture – the belief that all is potential, that the true self is coaxed out through love and living.

And so, they take a bet.

Each immortal selects a set of twins as their champions. The twins that prevail in contest will decide which immortal rules...

In a westerly valley, a girl and boy are born to a noble family, to be raised by a mysterious teacher – ready to love and instruct them in everything, regardless of society’s expectations...

To the east, a woman washes ashore on an island inhabited only by a sorcerer. With her final breaths, she gives birth to twins. These two are raised with careful neglect by the sorcerer – surrounded not with love but with danger, magic and wildness.

Society expects these children to become men and women. But the immortals care nothing for human norms and raise the twins according to their own ends. Which twins will prevail?

What truly matters in determining who a person will become?

Taking the epic Italian legend of Orlando Furioso as his starting point, Alex Myers unravels a tale of fate, of East and West, of twinship and of heroic self-affirmation; once more translating a classic into a multilayered new story sure to delight fans of Uprooted and The Bear and the Nightingale.
From StoryGraph

Bookshop^ | StoryGraph | Goodreads

So that's my TBR! Are you taking part? What will you be reading?

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