Can’t Wait Wednesday: More January 2020 Book Releases

Can’t Wait Wednesday is hosted by Wishful Endings. I get to spotlight a few upcoming book releases that sound interesting to me. Here’s what’s coming out in the next few weeks.

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More January 2020 Book Releases

We Wish You Luck by Caroline Zancan

Adult Literary Fiction

January 14, 2020

It doesn't take long for the students on Fielding campus to become obsessed with Hannah, Leslie and Jimmy. The three graduate students are mysterious, inaccessible, and brilliant. Leslie, glamorous and brash, has declared that she wants to write erotica and make millions. Hannah is quietly confident, loyal, elegantly beautiful, and the person they all want to be; and Jimmy is a haunted genius with no past. After Simone—young, bestselling author and erstwhile model—shows up as a visiting professor, and after everything that happened with her, the trio only become more notorious.

Love. Death. Revenge. These age-old tropes come to life as the semesters unfold. The threesome came to study writing, to be writers, and this is the story they've woven together: of friendship and passion, of competition and envy, of creativity as life and death. Now, they submit this story, We Wish You Luck, for your reading pleasure.

What interests me? Getting an MFA is intense, but luckily, mine wasn’t this intense. Goodreads says this book is about “a group of students who take revenge on a wunderkind professor after she destroys one of their own—a story of collective drive to create, sabotage, and ultimately, to love.” I’m getting vibes of Donna Tartt’s The Secret History. I love that book.

Buy it on Amazon

Catherine’s War by Julia Billet & Claire Fauvel

Middlegrade Historical Graphic Novel

January 21, 2020

The story follows Catherine, born Rachel, a Jewish child in World War II, who journeys from occupied France to the free zone armed with a camera and her artistic vision. It was inspired by the childhood of the author's mother.

What interests me? I’m always on the lookout for new graphic novels, and one of the quickest ways to get my attention is to slap “inspired by a true story” on a historical book. The blurb at the top of the cover comes from Susan Campbell Bartoletti. I know Susan in real life and trust her book recommendations.

Buy it on Amazon

Blood Countess by Lana Popović

Young Adult Historical Horror

January 28, 2020

A historical YA horror novel based on the infamous real-life inspiration for Countess Dracula.

In 17th century Hungary, Anna Darvulia has just begun working as a scullery maid for the young and glamorous Countess Elizabeth Báthory. When Elizabeth takes a liking to Anna, she’s vaulted to the dream role of chambermaid, a far cry from the filthy servants’ quarters below. She receives wages generous enough to provide for her family, and the Countess begins to groom Anna as her friend and confidante. It’s not long before Anna falls completely under the Countess’s spell—and the Countess takes full advantage. Isolated from her former friends, family, and fiancé, Anna realizes she’s not a friend but a prisoner of the increasingly cruel Elizabeth. Then come the murders, and Anna knows it’s only a matter of time before the Blood Countess turns on her, too.

What interests me? Real-life. Historical. Horror. Those words are all it takes to make me pick up a book.

Buy it on Amazon

Don’t Read The Comments by Eric Smith

Young Adult Contemporary

January 28, 2020

Divya Sharma is a queen. Or she is when she’s playing Reclaim the Sun, the year’s hottest online game. Divya—better known as popular streaming gamer D1V—regularly leads her #AngstArmada on quests through the game’s vast and gorgeous virtual universe. But for Divya, this is more than just a game. Out in the real world, she’s trading her rising-star status for sponsorships to help her struggling single mom pay the rent.

Gaming is basically Aaron Jericho’s entire life. Much to his mother’s frustration, Aaron has zero interest in becoming a doctor like her, and spends his free time writing games for a local developer. At least he can escape into Reclaim the Sun—and with a trillion worlds to explore, disappearing should be easy. But to his surprise, he somehow ends up on the same remote planet as celebrity gamer D1V.

At home, Divya and Aaron grapple with their problems alone, but in the game, they have each other to face infinite new worlds . . . and the growing legion of trolls populating them. Soon the virtual harassment seeps into reality when a group called the Vox Populi begin launching real-world doxxing campaigns, threatening Aaron’s dreams and Divya’s actual life. The online trolls think they can drive her out of the game, but everything and everyone Divya cares about is on the line.

And she isn’t going down without a fight.

What interests me? It’s about kids who spend their lives online. #Relatable. The “online life becomes real life” plot reminds me of Eliza And Her Monsters by Francesca Zappia, which was one of my favorite books of 2019.

Buy it on Amazon

Wildfire by Carrie Mac

Young Adult Contemporary

January 28, 2020

Annie and Pete have been best friends since they were little. They know each other better than anyone, and they've been on more adventures than they can count—they even have a notebook filled with all the times they've almost died. But they always survive, because together, they're invincible.

And they've always been just friends. But lately, Annie has been thinking that maybe friendship is just the beginning, and she's been mentally replaying all the times they were almost something more.

Now they're heading out on their next great quest: a ten-day backpacking trip through the mountains of Washington State, ending at Fire Camp, where they'll learn to fight the area's growing wildfire problem. The woods spark with the promise of adventure, but a freak climbing accident interrupts their progress, and as the wildfires close in and smoke envelops them, Annie and Pete wander farther from the trail.

What interests me? Goodreads describes it as “Into the Wild meets The Serpent King.” YES and YES. I love both of those books. I fully support mashing them together.

Buy it on Amazon

When You Trap A Tiger by Tae Keller

Middlegrade Fantasy

January 28, 2020

When Lily and her family move in with her sick grandmother, a magical tiger straight out of her Halmoni's Korean folktales arrives, prompting Lily to unravel a secret family history. Long, long ago, Halmoni stole something from the tigers. Now, the tigers want it back. And when one of those tigers offers Lily a deal—return what Halmoni stole in exchange for Halmoni's health—Lily is tempted to accept. But deals with tigers are never what they seem! With the help of her sister and her new friend Ricky, Lily must find her voice and the courage to face a tiger.

What interests me? Tae Keller wrote one of my 2019 favorites, The Science Of Breakable Things. That was a middlegrade contemporary. I’m not a massive fantasy lover, but I’ll give her new book a shot. If the characters are as adorable as the characters in her other book, I’ll love it.

Buy it on Amazon

Are you looking forward to any January book releases?