Tantalizing Tales — December 2024 — Part Two

Hello, readers! I decided to keep my final 2024 recap of books on my TBR pile for the very last day of the year instead of trying to shoehorn it into last Friday’s slot. Mostly, I needed the time off from writing and publishing. It has been a very busy year filled with a tremendous amount of books, and I desperately needed a mini-vacation given the sheer amount I’ve been reviewing and recapping recently. I’ll do an annual retrospective once the year turns: I’m one of those weirdos who doesn’t consider things over till they’re over, and there might still be time for me to finish another short book or two before I write and post my reading recap on January 2nd, lol.

First up of books I wish I’d had time to read this year is Krystal Sutherland’s The Invocations! A serial killer is on the loose in modern-day London. All of the victims, who are being murdered with increasing brutality, have two things in common: they are women, and they have invocations carved into their skin—tattoos that mark them as witches.

Jude Wolf is the miserably cursed daughter of a billionaire. She made a deal with a demon that went horribly wrong, and her soul has been turning necrotic slowly and very painfully ever since. Now that she’s unwillingly glimpsed what lies beyond the veil, she’s desperate to find someone to undo the damage she’s done to herself.

Zara Jones was a straight-A student bound for Oxford until the sister who was her best friend in the entire world was violently murdered. Despite Zara’s lack of belief in magic, she throws herself into the study of necromancy in a desperate effort to bring her sister back. If only she could find a powerful witch to help her navigate this task…

Enter Emer Byrne, an orphaned witch and cursewriter from a long lineage of powerful witches. When she was a child, Emer witnessed her coven – her mother, sisters, cousins, aunts – massacred by witch hunters. Ever since, such she’s dedicated her life to helping women in desperate situations gain power through invocations, in exchange for a piece of their souls.

When Emer’s clients start turning up murdered all over London, a vital clue leads both Jude and Zara to her. The three strike a tenuous alliance to hunt a killer before they all find themselves next on the hunter’s list.

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Another book I’m desperately searching for time to read is Erin Hahn’s latest YA romance, Even If It Breaks Your Heart. I adored her prior novel, Never Saw You Coming, and am eager to see what she’s written next, especially since horseback riding plays a large part of this new story.

The only thing keeping nineteen-year-old Case Michaels together after the death of his best friend Walker is a list that Walker left behind of all the things that he wants Case to accomplish in his absence. So far though Case hasn’t even been able to continue riding bulls on the rodeo circuit, something he’s done his entire life. He just balks at the thought of competing without Walker by his side.

But the list? Case is determined to follow that to the letter – and he follows it all the way to Winnie Sutton.

Eighteen-year-old Winnie just wants to keep her family together. She graduated high school early so she could work long shifts at the Michaels family ranch in order to support her younger siblings and a father who’s more than happy to let Winnie fill the role of responsible parent. If she sometimes sneaks out to ride the horses herself and forget about life for a while – well, that’s no one else’s business. Until the day she crashes headfirst into Case Michaels. Case sees her riding skills and immediately ropes her into competing for the ranch and becoming his friend.

Winnie and Case couldn’t be more different, but Case can’t help but be inspired by Winnie’s badly-hidden passion for riding and competition. And there’s something about Case that makes Winnie want to try grasping onto a dream for herself, whether that’s a shot at a rodeo trophy, the annoyingly handsome rancher’s son who won’t leave her alone, or maybe both.

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For something centuries different, we explore the history of Ancient Egypt in Malayna Evans’ historical thriller Neferura, the suspenseful tale of the forgotten daughter of a legendary Egyptian pharaoh, and the path that she must take to escape her own dangerous fate.

There are many paths to power. They all come with a price. Neferura, princess and high priestess of Kemet, knows that her duty is to her people. When your mother is the great Pharaoh, one’s duty is hard to forget. But Neferura’s unique position at court comes with high stakes for her country, especially when she’s forced to serve her vile half-brother, a man determined to stop Neferura’s potential rise. Peace, it seems, never lasts for women who wield power in the open, and especially when they cross a vengeful man.

When Neferura overhears Thutmose’s plot to end her mother’s rule, she knows that he must be stopped, no matter the cost. The discovery of a mysterious tattooed wisewoman and her shadowy network of spies offers the pharaoh’s daughter an uneasy alliance. But the wisewoman wields more power than Neferura knew possible — power that could potentially rival her own. Neferura must decide where her loyalties lie and how much she’s willing to sacrifice to protect the people she loves… before everything crumbles at the hands of a tyrant.

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Another historical mystery on my list, tho closer to the present day by some centuries, is Patrice Mcdonough’s Murder By Lamplight, the series debut of her Dr Julia Lewis mysteries!

November 1866: a grisly murder site in London’s East End is thronged with onlookers. None of them expect the calmly efficient young woman in their midst to be a medical doctor, arrived to examine the corpse. Inspector Richard Tennant, overseeing the investigation, at first makes no effort to disguise his skepticism. Fortunately or otherwise, Dr. Julia Lewis is accustomed to such condescension.

In order to study medicine, Julia had had to leave Britain, where universities still bar their doors to women, and travel to America. She returned home to work in her grandfather’s practice and found London in the grip of a devastating cholera epidemic. In the four years since, however, she has seen nothing quite like this: a local clergyman’s body sexually mutilated and displayed in a manner that she and Tennant both suspect is highly personal.

Days later, another body is found with links to the first. Tennant calls in Dr. Lewis once more. The murderer begins sending the police taunting letters and tantalizing clues. The trail leads in multiple directions, from London’s music halls to its grim workhouses and dank sewers, as Lewis and Tennant struggle to understand the killer’s dark obsessions and motivations. But a new urgency emerges, as the doctor’s role appears to have shifted from expert to target. For this killer is no impulsive monster, but a fiendishly calculating opponent, determined to see his plan through to its terrifying conclusion.

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Finally, we have Elizabeth May’s To Cage A God, an epic series-starter based on Imperial Russia. This first book in a duology that features dragon gods and political machinations centers around two sisters, Galina and Sera, who must decide how much they will sacrifice for revolution.

To cage a god is divine.

To be divine is to rule.

To rule is to destroy.

Using ancient secrets, Galina and Sera’s mother grafted gods into their bones. Bound to brutal deities and granted forbidden power no commoner has held in a millennia, the sisters have grown up to become living weapons raised to overthrow an empire ― no matter the cost.

With their mother gone and their country on the brink of war, it falls to the sisters to take the helm of the rebellion and end the cruel reign of a royal family possessed by destructive gods. Because when the ruling alurea invade, they conquer with fire and blood. And when they clash, common folk burn.

But what is the cost of revolution, and are both women willing to pay it? Though the sisters begin with the same goal, the conflict pulls them in different directions. Sera turns to her former lover, a violent rebel leader, while Galina infiltrates the royal court. But instead of finding a savage tyrant within the palace, she discovers a princess who calls to her own heart. Now she must decide who to trust and how to do what must be done before the world burns.

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Let me know if you’re able to get to any of these books before I do, dear readers! I’d love to hear your opinions, and see if that will help spur me to push any of them higher up the mountain range that is my To Be Read pile.

And, as always, you can check out the list of my favorite books this year so far in my Bookshop storefront linked below!