Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Most Anticipated Releases for the First Half of 2019

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. Each week there is a new topic for bloggers to choose and list their top ten. This week’s theme is Top Ten Most Anticipated Releases for the First Half of 2019.

One of the best things about the start of a new year is all the amazing books that are due to be released, and there are plenty in 2019. Already a couple of my most anticipated reads have come out, The Wicked King and In an Absent Dream, but there are still so many still to be released in the first half of the year. It made coming up with just ten for this list impossible, so I included some honourable mentions too.

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The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi
Release date: January 15th

Only one more week to go until The Gilded Wolves is released, and this is going to be a book I start the second I have it in my hands. I loved Chokshi’s The Star-Touched Queen duology so I have high hopes for this new series, and I’ve already heard positive things about The Gilded Wolves.

Paris, 1889: The world is on the cusp of industry and power, and the Exposition Universelle has breathed new life into the streets and dredged up ancient secrets. In this city, no one keeps tabs on secrets better than treasure-hunter and wealthy hotelier, Séverin Montagnet-Alarie. But when the all-powerful society, the Order of Babel, seeks him out for help, Séverin is offered a treasure that he never imagined: his true inheritance.

To find the ancient artifact the Order seeks, Séverin will need help from a band of experts: An engineer with a debt to pay. A historian who can’t yet go home. A dancer with a sinister past. And a brother in all but blood, who might care too much.

Together, they’ll have to use their wits and knowledge to hunt the artifact through the dark and glittering heart of Paris. What they find might change the world, but only if they can stay alive.

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King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo
Release date: January 29th

Is there’s anyone in the bookish community who isn’t excited for the release of King of Scars? Nikolai was my favourite character in the Grisha trilogy and I can’t wait to continue his story, and possibly see some cameos from other Grisha and Six of Crows characters, in King of Scars.

Nikolai Lantsov has always had a gift for the impossible. No one knows what he endured in his country’s bloody civil war—and he intends to keep it that way. Now, as enemies gather at his weakened borders, the young king must find a way to refill Ravka’s coffers, forge new alliances, and stop a rising threat to the once-great Grisha Army.

Yet with every day a dark magic within him grows stronger, threatening to destroy all he has built. With the help of a young monk and a legendary Grisha Squaller, Nikolai will journey to the places in Ravka where the deepest magic survives to vanquish the terrible legacy inside him. He will risk everything to save his country and himself. But some secrets aren’t meant to stay buried—and some wounds aren’t meant to heal.

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On the Come Up by Angie Thomas
Release date: February 7th

I don’t think there are enough words to fully describe the impact Angie Thomas’s debut release had on everyone who read it. The Hate U Give is an all-time favourite of mine, and I’m hoping On the Come Up will end up being another one.

Sixteen-year-old Bri wants to be one of the greatest rappers of all time. Or at least make it out of her neighborhood one day. As the daughter of an underground rap legend who died before he hit big, Bri’s got big shoes to fill. But now that her mom has unexpectedly lost her job, food banks and shutoff notices are as much a part of Bri’s life as beats and rhymes. With bills piling up and homelessness staring her family down, Bri no longer just wants to make it—she has to make it.

On the Come Up is Angie Thomas’s homage to hip-hop, the art that sparked her passion for storytelling and continues to inspire her to this day. It is the story of fighting for your dreams, even as the odds are stacked against you; of the struggle to become who you are and not who everyone expects you to be; and of the desperate realities of poor and working-class black families.

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The Kingdom of Copper by S.A. Chakraborty
Release date: February 21st

It feels like so long ago I read and fell in love with The City of Brass, so a re-read is definitely going to be in order before I pick up this one, but I can remember all too clearly the cliffhanger it left Nahri’s story on. I know the wait will be worth it though, the one pre-release review I’ve read was glowing.

Nahri’s life changed forever the moment she accidentally summoned Dara, a formidable, mysterious djinn, during one of her schemes. Whisked from her home in Cairo, she was thrust into the dazzling royal court of Daevabad and quickly discovered she would need all her grifter instincts to survive there.

Now, with Daevabad entrenched in the dark aftermath of the battle that saw Dara slain at Prince Ali’s hand, Nahri must forge a new path for herself, without the protection of the guardian who stole her heart or the counsel of the prince she considered a friend. But even as she embraces her heritage and the power it holds, she knows she’s been trapped in a gilded cage, watched by a king who rules from the throne that once belonged to her family and one misstep will doom her tribe.

Meanwhile, Ali has been exiled for daring to defy his father. Hunted by assassins, adrift on the unforgiving copper sands of his ancestral land, he is forced to rely on the frightening abilities the marid the unpredictable water spirits have gifted him. But in doing so, he threatens to unearth a terrible secret his family has long kept buried.

And as a new century approaches and the djinn gather within Daevabad’s towering brass walls for celebrations, a threat brews unseen in the desolate north. It’s a force that would bring a storm of fire straight to the city’s gates…and one that seeks the aid of a warrior trapped between worlds, torn between a violent duty he can never escape and a peace he fears he will never deserve.

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The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon
Release date: February 26th

Samantha Shannon is one of my all-time favourite authors; her Bone Season series is one I am addicted to, and I need book four like yesterday, but I can’t wait to see how her writing style translates to this epic high fantasy read. Plus it has dragons, I’m already sold on it.

A world divided.
A queendom without an heir.
An ancient enemy awakens.

The House of Berethnet has ruled Inys for a thousand years. Still unwed, Queen Sabran the Ninth must conceive a daughter to protect her realm from destruction—but assassins are getting closer to her door.

Ead Duryan is an outsider at court. Though she has risen to the position of lady-in-waiting, she is loyal to a hidden society of mages. Ead keeps a watchful eye on Sabran, secretly protecting her with forbidden magic.

Across the dark sea, Tané has trained all her life to be a dragonrider, but is forced to make a choice that could see her life unravel.

Meanwhile, the divided East and West refuse to parley, and forces of chaos are rising from their sleep.

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You Asked for Perfect by Laura Silverman
Release date: March 5th

The first contemporary to make it onto my list this week. I haven’t read any of Laura Silverman’s other releases, but I saw people talking about how excited they were for You Asked for Perfect and when I read the blurb I knew this was going to be a story I’m going to love and be able to relate to.

Senior Ariel Stone is the perfect college applicant: first chair violin, dedicated community volunteer, and expected valedictorian. He works hard – really hard – to make his life look effortless. A failed Calculus quiz is not part of that plan. Not when he’s number one. Not when his peers can smell weakness like a freshman’s body spray.

Figuring a few all-nighters will preserve his class rank, Ariel throws himself into studying. His friends will understand if he skips a few plans, and he can sleep when he graduates. Except Ariel’s grade continues to slide. Reluctantly, he gets a tutor. Amir and Ariel have never gotten along, but Amir excels in Calculus, and Ariel is out of options.

Ariel may not like Calc, but he might like Amir. Except adding a new relationship to his long list of commitments may just push him past his limit.

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Wicked Saints by Emily A. Duncan
Release date: April 2nd

This book has been on my TBR list for so long, before it even had a cover, that I feel like I’ve been waiting for Wicked Saints forever. Something tells me the wait will be worth it in the end though; it sounds dark but beautiful, which let’s face it is kind of my taste in YA fantasy books.

A girl who can speak to gods must save her people without destroying herself.

A prince in danger must decide who to trust.

A boy with a monstrous secret waits in the wings. 

Together, they must assassinate the king and stop the war.

In a centuries-long war where beauty and brutality meet, their three paths entwine in a shadowy world of spilled blood and mysterious saints, where a forbidden romance threatens to tip the scales between dark and light. Wicked Saints is the thrilling start to Emily A. Duncan’s devastatingly Gothic Something Dark and Holy trilogy.

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King of Fools by Amanda Foody
Release date: April 30th

When it comes to diversity in YA fantasy books there’s no other author I’ve discovered who includes more than Amanda Foody. I enjoyed her standalone debut but loved Ace of Shades and I can’t wait to dive back into the series, and Foody’s writing style, when King of Fools is released.

Indulge your vices in the City of Sin, where a sinister street war is brewing and fame is the deadliest killer of them all…

On the quest to find her missing mother, prim and proper Enne Salta became reluctant allies with Levi Glaisyer, the city’s most famous con man. Saving his life in the Shadow Game forced Enne to assume the identity of Seance, a mysterious underworld figure. Now, with the Chancellor of the Republic dead and bounties on both their heads, she and Levi must play a dangerous game of crime and politics…with the very fate of New Reynes at stake.

Thirsting for his freedom and the chance to build an empire, Levi enters an unlikely partnership with Vianca Augustine’s estranged son. Meanwhile, Enne remains trapped by the mafia donna’s binding oath, playing the roles of both darling lady and cunning street lord, unsure which side of herself reflects the truth.

As Enne and Levi walk a path of unimaginable wealth and opportunity, new relationships and deadly secrets could quickly lead them into ruin. And when unforeseen players enter the game, they must each make an impossible choice: To sacrifice everything they’ve earned in order to survive…

Or die as legends.

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Aurora Rising by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
Release date: May 7th

This is written by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff, a writing partnership which brought us The Illuminae Files series. Anything they each release separately is a must-add to my TBR list so another series they’ve written together is not only automatically added but pushed to the very top.

From the internationally bestselling authors of The Illuminae Files comes an epic new science fiction adventure.

The year is 2380, and the graduating cadets of Aurora Academy are being assigned their first missions. Star pupil Tyler Jones is ready to recruit the squad of his dreams, but his own boneheaded heroism sees him stuck with the dregs nobody else in the Academy would touch…

A cocky diplomat with a black belt in sarcasm
A sociopath scientist with a fondness for shooting her bunkmates
A smart-ass techwiz with the galaxy’s biggest chip on his shoulder
An alien warrior with anger management issues
A tomboy pilot who’s totally not into him, in case you were wondering

And Ty’s squad isn’t even his biggest problem—that’d be Aurora Jie-Lin O’Malley, the girl he’s just rescued from interdimensional space. Trapped in cryo-sleep for two centuries, Auri is a girl out of time and out of her depth. But she could be the catalyst that starts a war millions of years in the making, and Tyler’s squad of losers, discipline-cases and misfits might just be the last hope for the entire galaxy.

They’re not the heroes we deserve. They’re just the ones we could find. Nobody panic.

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Finale by Stephanie Garber
Release date: May 9th

I loved Caraval but Legendary blew it out the water. Everything everyone had been saying about how it series had gotten better was true so I’m hoping this trend continues and Finale is the best of the trilogy. There’s a lot left to tie off in this last book so it’s definitely going to be an intense read.

Welcome, welcome to Finale, the third and final book in the #1 New York Times bestselling Caraval series!

Welcome, welcome to Caraval…all games must come to an end.

It’s been two months since the last Caraval concluded, two months since the Fates have been freed from an enchanted deck of cards, two months since Tella has seen Legend, and two months since Legend claimed the empire’s throne as his own. Now, Legend is preparing for his official coronation and Tella is determined to stop it. She believes her own mother, who still remains in an enchanted sleep, is the rightful heir to the throne.

Meanwhile, Scarlett has started a game of her own. She’s challenged Julian and her former fiancé, Count Nicolas d’Arcy, to a competition where the winner will receive her hand in marriage. Finally, Scarlett feels as if she is in complete control over her life and future. She is unaware that her mother’s past has put her in the greatest danger of all.

Caraval is over, but perhaps the greatest game of all has begun―with lives, empires, and hearts all at stake. There are no spectators this time: only those who will win…and those who will lose everything.

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Honourable Mentions

The Princess and the Fangirl by Ashley Poston | If I’m Being Honest by Emily Wibberley and Austin Siegemund-Broka | We Contain Multitudes by Sarah Henstra | Going Off-Script by Jen Wilde | DEV1AT3 by Jay Kristoff

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So what do you think? Did you take part in this week’s Top Ten Tuesday, if so let me know what books being released in the first half of this year you can’t wait for. Have any of the books I picked made your list?