My Anticipated Releases – Books I’ve Preordered in January & February

Ahh, preorders, what a great way to start the year. There are so many anticipated releases coming out this year. And though I can’t afford to preorder all of them, I have preordered a few in January and February.

So, I thought, why not share them with you guys? Add to your TBRs, haha. I won’t be posting regular lists of books I’m anticipating this year, as these posts take way too long. But I do want to take this opportunity to share some of the books and manga I’m excited about.

Starting with…

January

A Venom Dark and Sweet by Judy I. Lin – 17th January

This is the sequel to A Magic Steeped in Poison which I reviewed last year.

Now, I know this book is already out for you Americans. But this releases in the UK this month, and I’m so excited. Waterstones have done a special edition to match the first book, and I’ve obviously preordered that edition. I adored the first book, and I’m so hyped to finish this duology.

I won’t go into much detail since this is a sequel, but this is an East Asian-inspired fantasy focusing on tea magic. Ning, our heroine, blamed herself for the death of her mother, due to poison in her tea. Now her sister is sick too, and in desperate hope to save her, she entered a tea magic competition. Ning hopes she’ll be able to use the wish granted as a prize to save her.

This was a very political fantasy with a fascinating magic system. I enjoyed the first book quite a lot and will definitely be rereading it before getting onto this one.

February

Take A Bow Noah Mitchell by Tobias Madden – February 14th

Valentine’s is the perfect day for a romance release, and I’m so excited for this queer YA. I’ll be honest, I’m not sure if this is getting released in the UK or not, but I am getting a copy either way.

I’m a big fan of contemporary stories that are nerdy in some way. So this one definitely stood out to me. I’m not a theatre kid, but I was friends with them. So seeing a teenage boy get involved with all that, just to meet his online crush? Yeah, that sounds like a lot of fun to me. I’ve really enjoyed the YA theatre-based books I’ve read before. So I’m pretty sure that I’ll love this one too.

As I’ve said, in this book we follow Noah as he joins the local musical run by his mother to meet his online crush. He knows M lives in the same town as him, but M’s overprotective parent won’t let them meet. When M’s offline activities seem to start lining up with Noah’s mother’s musical, he realises that this might be the opportunity he’s been waiting for. The only thing is, he doesn’t want M to know that they know each other online. But after their debut performance, the secrets come spilling out and he’ll have to fix things and figure out what’s worth saving.

It’s weird that as I’ve gotten older, I’ve started to enjoy YA contemporaries once again, and I know I’ll love this one.

Marmalade Boy Collectors Edition 1 by Wataru Yoshizumi – February 14th

Technically this book is a collection of manga that I already own some volumes of. But it’s a series I never completed, and I’m missing volumes between the two I have anyway. Oops? This is an old manga series, it ran in Japan from 1992 to 1995. If you want to compare it to another series, this was when the original Sailor Moon anime was airing over there. So, this manga is as old as me.

It’s a series that teenage me very much enjoyed, but was one I never finished. It’s been out of print for many years, with it being a Tokyopop title. I was so excited when I saw that Seven Seas picked it up for rerelease. I’m excited to give this series a second go and to get rid of my old copies, finally.

I will say that if you’re a shoujo enjoyer now, you will find this series very dated. The premise of this series is that we follow Miki, a teenage girl who out of the blue, is surprised by her parents coming back from a cruise divorced. And not only divorced but remarried to the partners of another couple. It’s decided that the two couples will move in together in one large house so that Miki, and her new step-brother, Yuu have both of their parents around. Only the more time Miki spends with Yuu, she finds herself falling for him.

So, yeah, this series does have a step-sibling romance at the forefront, and on top of that, there’s a teacher/student side couple. There are probably some other issues that I’m missing as well. But it’s a 90’s shoujo manga, so it’s the sort of thing I expect.

I’m hoping I’ll love it as much as I did as a teenager and that these collectors’ editions will be stunning.

She is a Haunting by Trang Thanh Tran – 28th February

This is a book that I’ve already spoken about on this blog, so I won’t go into too much detail. But it’s a YA horror that I am incredibly excited about. I read a sampler of this that I picked up from YALC earlier in the year, and oh my goodness. The atmosphere of those few chapters was enough to have me obsessed.

I cannot wait to have a physical copy of this book in my hands. You know I’ll be sharing so many pictures on Instagram. Especially with that intriguing cover.

She is A Haunting follows teenager Jade Nguyen who desperately needs money for college. She’s always lied, so summer with her estranged father in Vietnam should be something she can survive. She agrees to help him with the dilapidated French colonial house that he’s been renovating. One morning she wakes up feeling like something clawed down her throat from the inside, and a ghost bride visits her and tells her not to eat. When Jade’s dad and sister don’t believe her, she recruits Florence, who has been helping her with the house, to stage hauntings and scare them out of there. But the house has other plans. It’s hungry, and it won’t be abandoned again.

If you want to read more of my early thoughts, check out my Will I Like This book post on this title!

Final Thoughts

This post was originally going to span between January and May, but when writing this post, I felt like I already had enough. I may do another one of these posts for my March preorders, but we’ll see.

I love preordering books, but I always have to write them down, so that I don’t forget what I’ve got coming. I need to make sure I have the money after all! I’ve actually already received my first preorder of the year. Kelley Armstrong’s latest was released on the 5th and you know I needed that one. I was going to include it on this list originally, but I left the post a little late, haha.

Have you guys preordered many books in January or February? What about March? Let me know down below and maybe I’ll be adding more books to my offline list…