Have you ever read a book that you loved but hadn’t really heard about before in the book community? It happens to most everyone! This week, look for books that you wish more people in the book community knew about.
Me at the T5W Goodreads group
I’m pretty excited to do this week’s prompt! I’ve read a lot of indie/less known books recently that I really enjoyed and I’m glad to have the chance to talk about them.
Romanov | Nadine Brandes
“Anastasia “Nastya” Romanov was given a single mission: to smuggle an ancient spell into her suitcase on her way to exile in Siberia. It might be her family’s only salvation. But the leader of the Bolshevik army is after them, and he’s hunted Romanov before.
Nastya’s only chances of saving herself and her family are to either release the spell and deal with the consequences, or enlist help from Zash, the handsome soldier who doesn’t act like the average Bolshevik. Nastya has only dabbled in magic, but it doesn’t frighten her half as much as her growing attraction to Zash. She likes him. She thinks he might even like her.
That is, until she’s on one side of a firing squad . . . and he’s on the other.”
I read this book a few years ago and it’s still one of the first things that comes to mind when I hear underhyped book. I love a good historical fiction, even more when it’s a historical fantasy, so this was everything I wanted! Pair it with the Romanovs and you have a perfect book for me!
The Mask of Mirrors | M. A. Carrick
“Fortune favors the bold. Magic favors the liars.
Ren is a con artist who has come to the sparkling city of Nadežra with one goal: to trick her way into a noble house, securing her fortune and her sister’s future.
But as she’s drawn into the elite world of House Traementis, she realizes her masquerade is just one of many surrounding her. And as nightmare magic begins to weave its way through the City of Dreams, the poisonous feuds of its aristocrats and the shadowy dangers of its impoverished underbelly become tangled…with Ren at their heart.
The Mask of Mirrors is the unmissable start to the Rook & Rose trilogy, a dazzling and darkly magical fantasy adventure by Marie Brennan and Alyc Helms, writing together as M. A. Carrick.”
I have no idea why The Mask of Mirrors didn’t blow up in the adult fantasy circles. It’s like a mixture of Six of Crows and The Lies of Locke Lamora (which I haven’t read so I’m guessing off the synopsis), both of which were massive hits.
Lost in the Never Woods | Aiden Thomas
“When children go missing in the small coastal town of Astoria, people look to Wendy for answers.
It’s been five years since Wendy and her two brothers went missing in the woods, but when the town’s children start to disappear, the questions surrounding her brothers’ mysterious circumstances are brought back into light. Attempting to flee her past, Wendy almost runs over an unconscious boy lying in the middle of the road, and gets pulled into the mystery haunting the town.
Peter, a boy she thought lived only in her stories, claims that if they don’t do something, the missing children will meet the same fate as her brothers. In order to find them and rescue the missing kids, Wendy must confront what’s waiting for her in the woods.”
I know many people said that Lost in the Never Woods wasn’t as good as Aiden Thomas’s debut novel Cemetery Boys, which I haven’t read so I can’t help you there, but I thought this story had the perfect mixture of fluff darker elements. It definitely deserves more love.
The Smoke Thieves | Sally Green
“In Brigant, Princess Catherine prepares for a loveless political marriage arranged by her brutal and ambitious father. In Calidor, downtrodden servant March seeks revenge on the prince who betrayed his people. In Pitoria, feckless Edyon steals cheap baubles for cheaper thrills as he drifts from town to town. And in the barren northern territories, thirteen-year-old Tash is running for her life as she plays bait for the gruff demon hunter Gravell.
As alliances shift and shatter, and old certainties are overturned, our four heroes find their past lives transformed and their futures inextricably linked by the unpredictable tides of magic and war. Who will rise and who will fall? And who will claim the ultimate prize?”
Much like Romanov, The Smoke Thieves was a book I read forever ago and still think of when someone says underrated book. I haven’t read Sally Green’s first series, which I know there are mixed feelings about, but I really loved almost everything about this novel.
Amelia Unabridged | Ashley Schumacher
“Eighteen-year-old Amelia Griffin is obsessed with the famous Orman Chronicles, written by the young and reclusive prodigy N. E. Endsley. They’re the books that brought her and her best friend Jenna together after Amelia’s father left and her family imploded. So when Amelia and Jenna get the opportunity to attend a book festival with Endsley in attendance, Amelia is ecstatic. It’s the perfect way to start off their last summer before college.
In a heartbeat, everything goes horribly wrong. When Jenna gets a chance to meet the author and Amelia doesn’t, the two have a blowout fight like they’ve never experienced. And before Amelia has a chance to mend things, Jenna is killed in a freak car accident. Grief-stricken, and without her best friend to guide her, Amelia questions everything she had planned for the future.
When a mysterious, rare edition of the Orman Chronicles arrives, Amelia is convinced that it somehow came from Jenna. Tracking the book to an obscure but enchanting bookstore in Michigan, Amelia is shocked to find herself face-to-face with the enigmatic and handsome N. E. Endsley himself, the reason for Amelia’s and Jenna’s fight and perhaps the clue to what Jenna wanted to tell her all along.”
I read an eARC of this liked it so much that it’s at the top of my to-buy list! It was absolutely beautiful and heart-wrenching and joined the short list of books that made me cry.
The Scribe Owl 
I agree with you on Amelia Unabridged! It’s such a beautiful story but such an underhyped book!!
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I’m glad you liked it! It needs so much more love.
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